Rating: 
Summary: Double vision
Review: Exclusion and Embrace is one of the most important books I have read in years. Although a very difficult book (having been written for an extremely critical academic community), it was completely worth the effort.As one recently evacuated from a war in Africa, I began the book looking for answers on how to rebuild a broken society. I found some of those, but more importantly I found an approach to my own life as the macro issues were ultimately based on how each individual operates. Volf's exploration of "double vision" -- building understanding through seeing from each other's perspectives -- continues to affect me, as I apply it to marriage, friendships, work, and relationships in general. I cannot recommend the book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Double vision
Review: Exclusion and Embrace is one of the most important books I have read in years. Although a very difficult book (having been written for an extremely critical academic community), it was completely worth the effort. As one recently evacuated from a war in Africa, I began the book looking for answers on how to rebuild a broken society. I found some of those, but more importantly I found an approach to my own life as the macro issues were ultimately based on how each individual operates. Volf's exploration of "double vision" -- building understanding through seeing from each other's perspectives -- continues to affect me, as I apply it to marriage, friendships, work, and relationships in general. I cannot recommend the book highly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book in Enlightening Christian identity
Review: The idea of "distance and belonging" immediately attracted me when I first read the book. It¡¦s very true that an all-encompassing change of loyalty¡¨ from its gods of a given culture to the God of all cultures lies at the very core of Christian identity. Volf gave the example of Abraham who went forth into a nomadic life in response to a call of God. But the question is how to define a proper relation¡¨? I feel the need to be distant, and yet to belong. As Volf points out, Pauline kind of universalism implicated that Christians need not loose their cultural identity¡K at the same time, no culture can retain its own tribal deities; religion has to be de-ethnicized so that ethnicity can be de-sacralized.¨ Moreover, with the ultimate allegiance to God of all cultures and to Christ who offers his body¡¦ as a home for all people, Christian children of Abraham can depart¡¦ from their culture without having to leave it.¡¨ And the distance born out of allegiance to God will creates space in us to receive the other¨, as well as ¡§entails a judgment against evil in every culture.¨ Reflecting on the concept of identity, Volf argues that the separating-and-binding¡¨ rather than simply separating¡¨ suggests Christian identity includes connection, difference, and heterogeneity. Therefore, it will be sinfully wrong to reconfiguring God¡¦s differentiation¡¨ as exclusion.¡¨ In my opinion, it is a great point Volf has made. We often mistakenly think plurality and heterogeneity must give way to homogeneity and unity in order to be pure, and repeatedly forget Paul told us in 1 Cor.: the same God works all of them in all men.¡¨ When the will to purity¡¨ is applied to politics, it becomes a deadly logic.
How should then we judge an exclusion that has already happened/existed? It is very possible when one party sees itself as seeking justice; the other might perceive the same action as revenge. Volf is right that when we exam the relationship between the perpetrator and the victims, we often find ourselves sucked into a long history of wrongdoing in which yesterday¡¦s victims are today¡¦s perpetrators and today¡¦s perpetrators tomorrow¡¦s victims.¡¨ The line between the guilty and the innocent often blurs. And it leads us to reconfirm what Paul concluded in Romans: men are all under sin. Then, how do we weigh sins? Unfortunately, since human beings are corrupted, there is no absolute standpoint from which relative human beings can make absolute judgments as the third party. If we cannot even judge the oppressor and the oppressed, how could justice be satisfied? I cannot agree with Volf more that no salvation can be expected from an approach that rests fundamentally on the moral assignment of blame and innocence.¡¨ I truly believe that every person¡¦s heart is blemished with sin, so the name of the one truly innocent victim, the crucified Messiah of God, is the only answer to integrity and healing.
That is why Jesus not only kindles hope in the hearts of the oppressed, but also brings the message of God¡¦s unconditional love and the people¡¦s need for repentance. On the contrary to our general thoughts of punishment and demanded change of the oppressors, the truly revolutionary character of Jesus¡¦ proclamation lies precisely in the connection between the hope he gives to the oppressed and the radical change he requires of them,¡¨ says Volf. It sounds unfair to the oppressed at the first glance, but indeed is the way not letting oneself be shaped in the mirror image of the enemy. Volf writes beautifully in his book: ¡§to repent means to resist the seductiveness of the sinful values and practices and to let the new order of God¡¦s reign be established in one¡¦s heart.¡¨ The argument is powerful that without repentance for the sins, the full human dignity of victims will not be restored and the needed social change will not take place.¡¨ We all are familiar with the Lord¡¦s Prayer that has taught us, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.¡¨ Volf says the very idea of forgiveness implies an affirmation of justice, since we owe God something and the other people owe us something at the same time. A real forgiveness can break the power of the remembered past and transcend the claims of justice and so make the vengeance to a halt. However, forgiveness is not forgetting. The memory of sin must be kept alive for a while, as long as it is needed for repentance and transformation to occur, then it must be let die.¡¨ The instance of Joseph in Genesis is exercised here. Joseph made his brothers remember his suffering caused by them before the journey of reconciliation.
On the other hand, Volf challenged to the theology of liberation in this book. There are always ambiguities in liberation.¡¨ It is fair to say that a good deal of the message on the Scripture is written from below, that is, those who suffer at the hand of the mighty. However, the longer the conflict continues the more both parties find themselves sucked into the vortex of mutually reinforcing victimization. I agree with Volf that love should be ultimate in our social engagement, not freedom. In explaining the open arms of the father to his prodigal son in Luke, Volf proclaims that relationship has priority over all rules.¡¨ He thinks no one should ever be excluded from the will to embrace, because the relationship to others does not rest on their moral performance and therefore cannot be undone by the lack of it. In short, Volf¡¦s book has enlightened my thoughts in many ways and I enjoy the reading very much.
Rating:
Summary: A great book in Enlightening Christian identity
Review: The idea of "distance and belonging" immediately attracted me when I first read the book. It¡¦s very true that an all-encompassing change of loyalty¡¨ from its gods of a given culture to the God of all cultures lies at the very core of Christian identity. Volf gave the example of Abraham who went forth into a nomadic life in response to a call of God. But the question is how to define a proper relation¡¨? I feel the need to be distant, and yet to belong. As Volf points out, Pauline kind of universalism implicated that Christians need not loose their cultural identity¡K at the same time, no culture can retain its own tribal deities; religion has to be de-ethnicized so that ethnicity can be de-sacralized.¨ Moreover, with the ultimate allegiance to God of all cultures and to Christ who offers his body¡¦ as a home for all people, Christian children of Abraham can depart¡¦ from their culture without having to leave it.¡¨ And the distance born out of allegiance to God will creates space in us to receive the other¨, as well as ¡§entails a judgment against evil in every culture.¨ Reflecting on the concept of identity, Volf argues that the separating-and-binding¡¨ rather than simply separating¡¨ suggests Christian identity includes connection, difference, and heterogeneity. Therefore, it will be sinfully wrong to reconfiguring God¡¦s differentiation¡¨ as exclusion.¡¨ In my opinion, it is a great point Volf has made. We often mistakenly think plurality and heterogeneity must give way to homogeneity and unity in order to be pure, and repeatedly forget Paul told us in 1 Cor.: the same God works all of them in all men.¡¨ When the will to purity¡¨ is applied to politics, it becomes a deadly logic.
How should then we judge an exclusion that has already happened/existed? It is very possible when one party sees itself as seeking justice; the other might perceive the same action as revenge. Volf is right that when we exam the relationship between the perpetrator and the victims, we often find ourselves sucked into a long history of wrongdoing in which yesterday¡¦s victims are today¡¦s perpetrators and today¡¦s perpetrators tomorrow¡¦s victims.¡¨ The line between the guilty and the innocent often blurs. And it leads us to reconfirm what Paul concluded in Romans: men are all under sin. Then, how do we weigh sins? Unfortunately, since human beings are corrupted, there is no absolute standpoint from which relative human beings can make absolute judgments as the third party. If we cannot even judge the oppressor and the oppressed, how could justice be satisfied? I cannot agree with Volf more that no salvation can be expected from an approach that rests fundamentally on the moral assignment of blame and innocence.¡¨ I truly believe that every person¡¦s heart is blemished with sin, so the name of the one truly innocent victim, the crucified Messiah of God, is the only answer to integrity and healing.
That is why Jesus not only kindles hope in the hearts of the oppressed, but also brings the message of God¡¦s unconditional love and the people¡¦s need for repentance. On the contrary to our general thoughts of punishment and demanded change of the oppressors, the truly revolutionary character of Jesus¡¦ proclamation lies precisely in the connection between the hope he gives to the oppressed and the radical change he requires of them,¡¨ says Volf. It sounds unfair to the oppressed at the first glance, but indeed is the way not letting oneself be shaped in the mirror image of the enemy. Volf writes beautifully in his book: ¡§to repent means to resist the seductiveness of the sinful values and practices and to let the new order of God¡¦s reign be established in one¡¦s heart.¡¨ The argument is powerful that without repentance for the sins, the full human dignity of victims will not be restored and the needed social change will not take place.¡¨ We all are familiar with the Lord¡¦s Prayer that has taught us, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.¡¨ Volf says the very idea of forgiveness implies an affirmation of justice, since we owe God something and the other people owe us something at the same time. A real forgiveness can break the power of the remembered past and transcend the claims of justice and so make the vengeance to a halt. However, forgiveness is not forgetting. The memory of sin must be kept alive for a while, as long as it is needed for repentance and transformation to occur, then it must be let die.¡¨ The instance of Joseph in Genesis is exercised here. Joseph made his brothers remember his suffering caused by them before the journey of reconciliation.
On the other hand, Volf challenged to the theology of liberation in this book. There are always ambiguities in liberation.¡¨ It is fair to say that a good deal of the message on the Scripture is written from below, that is, those who suffer at the hand of the mighty. However, the longer the conflict continues the more both parties find themselves sucked into the vortex of mutually reinforcing victimization. I agree with Volf that love should be ultimate in our social engagement, not freedom. In explaining the open arms of the father to his prodigal son in Luke, Volf proclaims that relationship has priority over all rules.¡¨ He thinks no one should ever be excluded from the will to embrace, because the relationship to others does not rest on their moral performance and therefore cannot be undone by the lack of it. In short, Volf¡¦s book has enlightened my thoughts in many ways and I enjoy the reading very much.
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for all!
Review: This book is one of the most meaningful books I have ever read. Volf writes in the best of the Christian tradition, citing scripture for his conclusions. However, his message must guide everyone, regardless of tradition. Powerful!
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for all!
Review: This book is one of the most meaningful books I have ever read. Volf writes in the best of the Christian tradition, citing scripture for his conclusions. However, his message must guide everyone, regardless of tradition. Powerful!
Rating:
Summary: "Exclusion" tears us apart and "embrace" brings us together.
Review: This is a beautiful and powerful examination of the forces that bring us together or tear us apart. The book contains many profound ideas with abundant illustrations from the Bible and modern history. Volf is a thoughtful Protestant theologian born in Croatia who has experienced first hand all of the devastating consequences of "exclusion" as practiced between his people and Serbia. He looks at the many ways we exclude people who are different from ourselves by dehumanizing, judging, labeling and demonizing. Thus, we render inferior and less than human, people who differ by race, culture, economic status, religion and gender. And so we perpetuate injustice and victimization. Volf then shows us that the injustices of "exclusion" can not be righted by revenge. Victims need to repent of what the perpetrators do to their souls lest they mimic the behavior of their oppressors and let themselves be shaped in the mirror image of the enemy. Neither revenge nor reparations can redress old injustices without creating new ones. The only healing path is forgiveness and reconciliation. He suggests that agreement on justice depends on the will to embrace the other and that justice inself will be unjust as long as it does not become a mutual embrace. He has an interesting view of God's justice. We usually think of justice as treating everybody the same. Volf says that God treats different people differently so that all will be treated justly. This book is a treasure.
Rating:
Summary: A Mind-Expanding Book
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Mind-Expanding Book
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and profound, a book to be read slowly.
Review: 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.
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