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

As I read this book I was challenged to understand theological foundations and keys to understanding deeply rooted conflict among peoples around the world. That is why I recommend this book to you. I have often pondered how we, the Christian Church, are to disciple nations. Some say it is done by winning a majority of souls in a nation, but the African nation of Malawi with 90% Christians is a dismal failure in terms justice, economic development, and overall of quality of life. Some say discipling a nation is all about quality of life and institutional reform, particularly reforms consistent with modern democracies. What is Exlusion? Exclusion is when we set ourselves apart from others for the purpose of defining our selves and justifying ourselves; we hope to purify ourselves. The difference between us has been healed when Jesus broke the wall of enmity. However, he did not erase the difference (p. 47). The need to restore "Identity" in individuals and whole cultures is a key message of this book. As Christians, we are called to depart from our culture and step into another. It is impossible to cross-cultures effectively if you do not know who you are. Volf encourages unity in diversity, "One body, many members" (p. 48), not a universal human identity. The bible says we are distinct in our diverse individualities and cultures. The cross of Christ is central. In the scandal of the cross, we find the promise of fellowship with the Crucified Christ. He explains that the core theme of the Gospels is "come and die". Our identity is "in His image". However, this identity is not the end; it is a means to the end. Once crucified, we are called to engage the world that is broken. Therefore every social issue must be processed through reflection on the cross. (p. 25). Volf calls us to give up on modern hopes in order to see the only hope in self-giving love (p. 28). Volf defines "exclusion" as a powerful, contagious, and destructive evil. What is Embrace? "Embrace", he writes, is distancing ourselves from our own cultures to create space for the other (p. 30). We must both cultivate a distance from culture and at the same time belong to our culture (p. 37). "Solitarity", Volf writes, rightly underlines God's partiality to the `helpless'. However solidarity must include self-donation, self-giving. The story of the Good Samaritan illustrates the evil of exclusion in overt acts of violence as well as the non-actions of the disinterested. Truth and justice, Volf argues, are unavailable if we do not choose to embrace (p. 29). What is needed is "space" in our hearts to embrace our neighbors (p. 51). Other cultures are not a threat, but a potential source of enrichment. As we make some distance from our own culture, we actually express judgment against evil in every culture (p. 52). Modernity will emphasize social arrangements, not social agents. Modernity shifts the "moral responsibility away from us individually and toward society. (p. 21). In min

I love this book and include it in the top 10 books that have influenced my life. Living in the fault zone between Muslim and Christian civilizations, and having gone through religious riots and killings in our town, the book's message is especially relevant. Reconciliation is something still being worked on. The book is loaded with insights and nuances that cannot be boiled down to a simple message. However, it is definitely not for everyone. Much of it is extremely academic and as a doctor I could only understand it because I had been doing some reading about postmodern culture, criticism and thinking. As an outsider to Volf's academic discipline, I had the feeling I was reading a message of vital importance encased in something that the academy might accept. If so, I think it was 100% appropriate and hopefully successful. Unfortunately it also limits the audience. It's not a book I can easily get my colleagues to read. I would dearly love to see a rewrite for non-specialists, and have even started editing a readable version for friends here. Finally, I think that there is something to Rev. Thomas Scarborough's criticism. I do not agree that the book is in any way shallow, but it does not deal satisfactorily with the difficult problem of what to do when "the other" apparently wants nothing except your own destruction, and where "justice" might seem to require the destruction or at least constraint of "the other." This can be a problem, for example, in extremely abusive family relationships, and appears to be true in some political and religious conflicts. Volf addressed this after September 11 in an interview with Christianity Today, and doubtless in other writings and addresses, but I did not get much understanding of this from the book.

I read this book because Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church quoted from it more than once, and what he quoted caught my attention. Here is the passage: "Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners. But no one can be in the presence of the God of the crucified Messiah for long without overcoming this double exclusion - without transposing the enemy from the sphere of monstrous inhumanity into the sphere of shared humanity and herself from the sphere of proud innocence into the sphere of common sinfulness. When one knows that the torturer will not eternally triumph over the victim, one is free to rediscover that person's humanity and imitate God's love for him. And when one knows that God's love is greater than all sin, one is free to see onself in the light of God's justice and so rediscover one's own sinfulness." (p.124) In 306 pages, the Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf shares the lessons he was teaching his seminary students while Serbian forces were establishing rape camps in and around his hometown. In short, Volf's Exclusion and Embrace is an incisive study on whether Jesus' command to love one's enemies (Matthew 5:44) can be taken seriously. Why it must be done, how it can be done, and the obstacles that must be overcome to at least be willing to embrace the perpetrator make up the bulk of the text. At first glance why Christians must love their enemies is obvious: because their Lord commands it. But beyond that, the importance of the commandment itself has never before become more apparent. We live in a world of holocausts, gulags, killing fields, suicide bombings, and ethnic cleansings. Volf goes at lengths to show, that unless people of difference - different cultures, religions, races - are willing to embrace the enemy, i.e., the "other", atrocities will only get worse as man's capacity to harm others grows with each technological and sociological advance. But conceding the necessity of "loving our enemies" as the only attitude that can end the cycle of violence that plagues so many cultures, even families, for generations, Volf addresses the most difficult question of just how a believing Croatian father of a raped and murdered daughter can obey Christ's command to love the Serbian soldier who committed the crimes when every ounce of his being cries out for blood. Remembering, forgetting, covenant, making space, double vision, living the truth, hoping in the God of violence, all of these combine to help one love his or her enemies, to help beat swords into plowsheds. For example, Volf extrapolates from the Parable of the Prodigal Son the profound insight that it was the prodigal's rememberance of his sonship that made his repentance possible. (p.158) Moreover, it was because the father rejected the older brother's demand for plain justice and instead upheld that "relationship has priority over all [moral] rules" that reconci

This is a sane, sober, and suggestive work. It is also nothing short of brilliant. The book will force advocates of liberation theology to gulp hard when they encounter these probing questions: "What happens when, armed with the belief in the rightness of its own cause, one side wins? How will the liberated oppressed live with their conquered oppressors?" (104). Here the primacy of reconciliation is asserted, a notion that liberation theologians have sometimes been accused of trivializing. While the book has not weakened my allegiance to liberation theology, it has made me consider eschatological possibilities and scenarios that I had heretofore overlooked. I was particularly taken with this passing line: "I am not a universalist, but God may be" (299). On the matter of style, some readers might have hoped for more footnotes to alleviate a cluttered text. Citation references are given in the body of the text itself and keyed to a very thorough bibliography. There can be no dismissing the book out of hand, however. Miroslav Volf is an outstandingly able theologian, holding two earned doctorates from Germany's University of Tuebingen. I have spoken with him in person and have found him quite engaging and friendly. His numerous writings need to be pondered diligently.

This is a tremendous book. While the author writes in an academic style, there is a warmth and questioning tone that makes the method engaging. Perhaps the important thing is that I learned from this book and it is making a difference in my life. The concepts of looking at others in an attitude of embrace and of love being a necessary precursor to justice are antithetical to my societal training. I was also struck by the section comparing the concepts of covenant and contract. Permanence in relationship, what a novel concept. Volf's book is an honest attempt by a scholar to look at the complexities of relatedness and identity. An attempt to summarize his thoughts in 1000 words is bound to fail - read the book.