Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

by Miroslav Volf

Publisher:

Abingdon Press

, 2010

Overview

Life at the end of the twentieth century presents us with a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Reaching back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation, Volf proposes the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion. Increasingly we see that exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality and causing us to react out of fear and anger to all those who are not within our (ever-narrowing) circle. In light of this, Christians must learn that salvation comes, not only as we are reconciled to God, and not only as we "learn to live with one another", but as we take the dangerous and costly step of opening ourselves to the other, of enfolding him or her in the same embrace with which we have been enfolded by God.

Contents

Top Highlights

“A major thrust of Moltmann’s thinking about the cross can be summed up in the notion of solidarity. The sufferings of Christ on the cross are not just his sufferings; they are ‘the sufferings of the poor and weak, which Jesus shares in his own body and in his own soul, in solidarity with them’ (Moltmann 1992, 130). And since God was in Christ, ‘through his passion Christ brings into the passion history of this world the eternal fellowship of God and divine justice and righteousness that creates life’ (131). On the cross, Christ both ‘identifies God with the victims of violence’ and identifies ‘the victims with God, so that they are put under God’s protection and with him are given the rights of which they have been deprived’ (131).” (source)

“The central thesis of the chapter is that God’s reception of hostile humanity into divine communion is a model for how human beings should relate to the other.” (source)

“All employment of God language for construction of gender identity is illegitimate and ought to be resisted” (source)

“There it became clear to me what, in a sense, I knew all along: the problem of ethnic and cultural conflicts is part of a larger problem of identity and otherness. There the problem of identity and otherness fought and bled and burned its way into my consciousness.” (source)

“Whether we use masculine or feminine metaphors for God, God models our common humanity, not our gender specificity.” (source)

Product Details

• Title : Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
• Author: Volf, Miroslav
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication Date: 2010
• ISBN: 9781426712333

About Miroslav Volf

Professor Volf is the founding Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (1996; revised edition, 2019), winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and named one of Christianity Today’s 100 most important religious books of the 20th Century; Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World (2016); The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything (2022), co-authored with Ryan McAnnally-Linz; and, most recently, co-authored with Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most (2023).

A member of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and the Evangelical Church in Croatia, Professor Volf has been involved in international ecumenical dialogues (for instance, with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and interfaith dialogues (including the Muslim and Christian “A Common Word” initiative), as well as a participant in the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. A native of Croatia, he regularly teaches and lectures in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and across North America. Amongst his many invited lectureships, he has given the Dudleian Lecture at Harvard University; the Chavasse Lectures at Oxford University; the Waldenstroem Lectures at Stockholm School of Theology; the Gray Lectures at Duke University; the Stob Lectures at Calvin University; and the Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham. In May 2025, he delivered the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen, UK.