Consensus or Dissensus? Exploring the Theological Role of Conflict in a Synodal Church

In contrast to more hierarchically organized ecclesiological approaches that a priori deny any legitimacy of conflict in the theology of the church, a synodal ecclesiology makes space for contestation and grants theological validity to conflict. Taking the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region (2019) as an exemplary case, this article argues that synodality calls for a theology of conflict, and retrieves Jacques Ranciere's political philosophy as a resource to develop an ecclesiological framework that can account for contestation as a constitutive dimension of the church. It will first sketch Ranciere's approach and then demonstrate its theological cogency by arguing that it offers a fruitful lens to understand revelation as a regime of in/visibility that is tied to processes of social in/exclusion. Using Ranciere's approach to elucidate some of the central debates around the Amazon Synod and its reception, it will sketch some crucial issues that are at stake as we seek to develop a robust theology of conflict as an integral aspect of synodal ecclesiology.