In the preface to his book, Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf reflects on the question Jurgenn Moltmann askes him, “But can you embrace a cetnik?”A cetnik was a term for the Serbian fighters who had been recently herding Volf’s people into concentration camps, raping woman, burning down churches, and destroying cities. — Paul Washer. We seem… Richard Lints.Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013. Volf is convinced that the way to cure religiously induced and rationalized violence isn’t to minimize religious commitment. However, Miroslav Volf warns in his award-winning book Exclusion and Embrace, “forgiveness is not a substitute for justice.” Forgiveness without justice is cheap reconciliation. Like many of you, my colleagues and I have been deeply troubled and grieved by the events of the past 24 hours—and we felt an urgency to affirm together the thoughts I’m sharing with you here. We must therefore distinguish between OUR IDEA OF GOD’S JUSTICE and GOD’S JUSTICE ITSELF. by Miroslav Volf May 3, 2011 As I listened to President Obama's calmly triumphant announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed and "justice has been served"--and to the reports of celebrations in American streets--I tried to sort out my own responses to the surprising news. If God is the God of all peoples, the justice of God must be the justice for all peoples…. The question is whether CHRISTIANS who want to uphold God’s universal justice can judge between cultures with divine infallibility. Yet when it comes to strict justice actually happening, Volf claims that it is impossible. Miroslav Volf Quotes (Author of Exclusion & Embrace) Volf focuses, rather, on what kind of selves we need to be in order to live in harmony with others. Yet we should seek to see things from their perspective in the hope that competing justices may become converging justices and eventually issue in agreement. We will either love each other as neighbors … “How does one remain loyal both to the demand of the oppressed for justice and to the gift of forgiveness that the Crucified offered to Here are a few excerpts which I find helpful to reflect on in light of the Zimmerman--Martin conflict. Miroslav Volf knows how difficult reconciliation can be. Nothing can guarantee in advance that the perspectives will merge and agreement be reached. This thesis seeks to develop an enlarged understanding of justice which reduces future conflict rather than feeding it and which seeks to ground human practices and notions of justice more firmly in divine justice. Last evening I watched “The Bravados,” a 1958 Western with Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. Keri also provides a gripping example of redeeming dangerous memories in the form of the 1921 Tulsa Black Wall Street Massacre. Privacy & cookies. Put differently, the more we reduce Christian faith to vague religiosity or conceive of it as exclusively … The question is not whether from a Christian perspective God’s justice is universal, whether God can infallibly judge between cultures irrespective of their differences. (p.224), [O]nly in our mutual embrace within the embrace of the triune God can we find redemption and experience perfect justice. His books speak of Religious commitment that promotes peace, not violence. Does it not rather intensify the struggle?…. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. This thesis seeks to develop an enlarged understanding of justice which reduces future conflict rather than feeding it and which seeks to ground human practices and notions of justice more firmly in divine justice. It is, however, equally true that there can be NO GENUINE EMBRACE WITHOUT JUSTICE. All rights reserved. At the heart of this project is Miroslav Volf’s theology of embrace. I seek to draw out the ways in which human life can image the triune life of justice and the parameters of this mirroring. In situations of conflict, reconciliation must be placed at the forefront in the pursuit of justice. Posted on August 12, 2009 by PaulVK. Miroslav Volf April 2, 2004 BOB ABERNETHY , anchor: The common reaction of most of us to pictures of Americans killed and defiled in a foreign land is a call for revenge. Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs is a magisterial book. Finally, I propose that the type of justice I have suggested, in collaboration with Volf, means that the pursuit of justice should be centred on restoring right relationships, going beyond what is due and is a continuous process rather than discrete actions. To be a follower of Jesus Christ means both to affirm that God’s justice transcends all cultural construals of justice and to strive for that justice (Matthew 6:33). KC (aka, Talmid) -- Husband, father, grampa, student, teacher, and follower (sometimes walking, sometimes crawling) of Jesus, the Messiah. He finds them about to be hanged for a bank robbery and murder of the banker. (p.213), To agree on justice in conflict situations you must want more than justice; you must want embrace. ], We seem to be trapped in the iron logic of a syllogism of despair. Must we, however, concede the disturbing thought that the justice backed by the most able and best equipped generals or propounded by the most effective propaganda will reign? Enjoy the best Miroslav Volf Quotes at BrainyQuote. Justice is impossible in the order of calculating, equalizing, legalizing, and universalizing actions. I draw on Volf’s work to assess the key problems and suggest that turning to his eschatological vision of justice may provide fruitful answers as to how justice should be pursued for the future. At the heart of this project is Miroslav Volf’s theology of embrace. The thesis attempts to question what this theology offers to the present day context of Croatia and Bosnia from which it emerged in the 1990s. Thirdly, I address the theological roots of Volf’s work in examining the Trinity. But does the pursuit of divine justice make an end to the struggle? Quotations by Miroslav Volf, Croatian Theologian, Born September 25, 1956. We may find that we must reject the perspective of the other. (p.216), If you want justice and nothing but justice, you will get injustice. He was educated in his native Croatia, the United States, and Germany, earning doctoral and post-doctoral degrees (with highest honors) from the University of Tübingen, Germany. Commentary. The cure is for Christians to reclaim the faith’s original content—grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, justice—and live as agents of peace. From Damascus to Rwanda and South Africa, a hard lesson has been learned. Miroslav Volf: Religious commitment that promotes peace, not violence. (p.196), [A]greement on justice depends on the will to embrace the other and that justice itself will be unjust as long as it does not become a mutual embrace. Miroslav Volf. This, in case the thrust of my terse comment wasn't plain enough, is very high praise. Identities can be reconfigured through enlarged thinking. Miroslav Volf on God's violence or ours. He said that he there cannot be both peace and justice to end a conflict of war. [Note:  Since my current theme always puts all blockquotes in italics, I have used CAPS to render Volf’s italicized words. Is God not love, long-suffering and all-powerful love? A world of perfect justice is a world of love. She and Miroslav Volf discuss her whole vision of individual and social justice through the lens of Christian faith and practice. All three accepted, it follows that what God holds to be just must be just for every person and every culture, apart from how any person construes justice. There can be NO JUSTICE WITHOUT THE WILL TO EMBRACE. [Note: Since my current theme always puts all blockquotes in italics, I have used CAPS to render Volf's italicized words.] “To live with integrity, it is important to know what's right and what's wrong, to be educated morally. If you want justice without injustice, you must want love.1 In this sweeping statement Miroslav Volf dismisses the basis of a wide range of The thesis attempts to question what this theology offers to the present day context of Croatia and Bosnia from which it … Christians should strive to honor their enemies and fight “bad economics” in their pursuit of justice, according to two speakers at a recent conference centered on social justice themes. Since Volf considers theology to be an articulation of a way of life, his theological writing is marked by a sense of the unity between systematic theology and biblical interpretation, between dogmatics and ethics, and between what is called "church theology" (e.g., Karl Barth and, later, Stanley Hauerwas) and "political/public theology" (e.g., Jürgen Moltmann and David Tracy). Conclusion: violence between cultures will never stop. Miroslav Volf is Founder and Director of Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale University Divinity School. Using our site Miroslav Volf paraphrase of book Exclusion & Embrace. Seeking to shape the other and for the other to shape the self is key to pursuing justice collaboratively. He studied philosophy and theology in his native Croatia and United States, and earned doctoral and post-doctoral degrees (with highest honors) from the University of Tübingen, Germany. His contributions to theology have for the most part been topical; he wrote on human work, the nature of Christian community, the problem of … If we don't learn to live with one another we will not live. The answer is that they cannot…. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I read Volf’s work as allowing for a sense of justice residing within the Trinity. As Volf makes clear, memory of ‘how it happened’ is inextricably connected to justice: Erase memory and you wash away the blood from the perpetrator’s hands, you undo the done deed, make it disappear from history. ( Log Out /  Miroslav Volf. Divinity School, Yale University See all articles by this author. (pp.197-9), [W]e enlarge our thinking by letting the voices and perspectives of others, especially those with whom we may be in conflict, resonate within ourselves, by allowing them to help us see them, as well as ourselves, from THEIR perspective, and if needed, readjust our perspective as we take into account their perspectives. Public Faith in Action: How to Think Carefully, Engage Wisely, and Vote with Integrity by Miroslav … ( Log Out /  At the heart of this project is Miroslav Volf’s theology of embrace. Resentment, even in the name of justice, is not for those who expect God's final reconciliation. The Embrace of Justice: Making the Best of It. Gregory Peck, Miroslav Volf, Christianity and Lethal Force. Millennium 2000 29: 3, 861-877 Download Citation. … Posts about Miroslav Volf written by M.P. Their focus is often interpersonal peace, harmony, and love rather than justice, reparation of wrongs, and equality.
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