This book arises out of the author's experience of living in Northern Ireland, which has undergone some level of political violence during the whole of his adult life. It is about Northern Ireland, but also about all the many other societies either experiencing or violent conflict or emerging from conflict. Can such societies make good again? What can Christian faith bring to the search for reconciliation? At the heart of the book is an examination of the vital question of dealing with the past, in particular how the complex and multi-stranded weave of forgiveness, justice, truth and repentance can overcome the past.