Reconciliation (-slshn), n.
Etymology: [F. réconciliation, L. reconciliatio.]
1. The act of reconciling, or the state of being reconciled; reconcilenment; restoration to harmony; renewal of friendship. Reconciliation and friendship with God really form the basis of all rational and true enjoyment. S. Miller.
2. Reduction to congruence or consistency; removal of inconsistency; harmony. A clear and easy reconciliation of those seeming inconsistencies of Scripture. D. Rogers.
Syn. -- Reconciliment; reunion; pacification; appeasement; propitiation; atonement; expiation.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for reconciliation; he lists it under propitiation.
Where he writes about it:
Atonement (at-one-ment), originally denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into agreement of those who have been estranged, is now chiefly used, as in theology, in the sense of some offering, sacrifice, or suffering sufficient to win forgiveness or make up for an offense; especially and distinctively of the sacrificial work of Christ in his humiliation, suffering and death. — from propitiation