Dr. Miroslav Volf: His Landmark Book "Exclusion & Embrace" Still Speaks to Us 30 Years Later

Lighthouse Faith

The protests and riots following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer have made many people question, why is it we have a hard time getting along with people who are different from ourselves? What is the driving force behind the conflicts we've seen these last few weeks? Theologians will say that at the root of all our problems is sin. But surely there's more to it than that. Nearly 30 years ago Dr. Miroslav Volf wrote a book that explored the vagaries of our mistrust and malevolent actions towards our fellow human beings. The book is called "Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation." It could have been written about what's happened today, but he wrote it for himself following the Croatian War in the 1990's, and the violence, destruction and killing that occurred between people who were once neighbors. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Volf, the Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, explains how the book came about; that he was asked after a lecture he gave if he could forgive the soldiers who murdered and destroyed his community. He answered truthfully that his faith said, "I must," but that his heart said, "I can't." This is our dilemma today. While civil authorities work to create new laws to try to restore a semblance of order and protect citizens from rogue cops and systemic injustices, people like Dr. Volf are calling for us to find a path to reconciliation, a path that begins with all of us seeing first how our own identities can unknowingly exclude people we are called to love, and embrace.

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