Here's another taster...
Submitted by Jules on February 19 2002 14:01:50
In reply to 'Exclusion and Embrace' submitted by Mark on February 17 2002 21:49:23
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Dear all, Mark prompted me to look into the book, and I've now read the introduction. Here's a summary of what I've read. It's very engaging stuff, but it would be hard work if you're not used to reading theology. If you like the sound of it, get hold of a copy for yourself; don't wait for me to read the rest of it; you might be waiting a long while! With Christian love, Jules Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996). Introduction - the Cross, the Self and the Other Volf writes from his reflection on disturbing images from three cities in 1992: Sarajevo, where he grew up, ravaged by war; Los Angeles, where he now lives, ravaged by racial violence; and Berlin, where he was invited to speak in that year, its streets trodden by neo-nazi marches. He identifies the root cause behind such cultural conflicts to be what he calls “the problem of identity and otherness.” When his home country of Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia, there was at first a relief at being free, but there was also a resurgence of Croatian national identity that viewed with suspicion those who did not fully share it. Volf sees that this desire for pure identity, defined to the exclusion of “others,” is behind the long history of destruction in the name of European colonisation and behind the evil of Germany’s “ultimate solution.” Volf sets out to show that a discussion of “identity and otherness” must be placed at the centre of any Christian thinking about the social world, alongside the more usual topics of rights, justice and ecology. There are Christians working in the fields of economics, politics and philosophy, whose job it is to propose social structures that can help overcome the problem of conflict. But there is an equally important job to be done by theologians, which is to set out how individuals should live within those social structures to help the same aim. And for this, a true understanding of the Cross is central. Volf draws from the writings of Jürgen Moltmann, in which the cross is both God’s act of solidarity with the suffering of the oppressed, and also God’s act of atonement for the oppressors. The cross is God’s act of self-giving for his enemies, to reach out and include them in eternal life. And this self-giving is also the true Christian way for those who are oppressed by their enemies. Volf writes: All sufferers can find comfort in the solidarity of the Crucified; but only those who struggle against evil by following the example of the Crucified will discover him at their side.It is the self-giving death of Jesus that defines the gospel more than anything else in his ministry. There is self-giving love within the Trinity, and the incarnation of that love in an evil world led inevitably to the cross. Those who are oppressed might be suspicious of being asked to live a life of self-giving: for example, do not many women feel that they already give enough to the men who oppress them? Yes, indeed, we naturally object to self-giving if we are not also on the receiving end of self-giving. But this is part of the “scandal” of the cross. The ideal is a society of mutual self-giving, but if the oppressors do not do their part, the oppressed still do theirs. The cross is truly counter-cultural. The ultimate scandal of the way of the cross is the risk that in the end the act of self-giving will fail to overcome evil; that the oppressors will not repent, and the oppressed will be abandoned. This is exactly the way Jesus felt when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In being obedient to his Father, he took the risk of being abandoned by him, and of being abandoned by the whole world. His disciples felt this scandal too, when they were in effect abandoned by Jesus in his death, and yet they continued to tell the story of the cross, because the empty tomb shows that there is joy beyond abandonment. There is “promise in the scandal.” In the Gospels, it is women (the oppressed gender) who most easily see this promise. They are the ones who “served” Jesus (Mk. 15:41) and they are the first to believe in his resurrection. They did not abandon him when the men did. It is the oppressed who most easily live the life of self-giving. The modern age has built a vision of a world where all problems will ultimately be solved through rational thought and social control; but this is a vision that we can no longer believe. Neither does the way of the cross promise an easy utopia; the way of self-giving must always face the risk that it will not solve all of the world’s problems. And yet in the midst of those very problems that do not yield to it, it offers the hope of the new life of the resurrection. In the rest of the book, Volf proposes to set out in more detail the promise offered by the cross. He identifies the central theme in the practical outworking of the cross as one of welcome. “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you.” (Rom. 15:7) He proposes the image of embrace for this welcome, and will examine the self-giving love of God within the Trinity, “the outstretched arms of Christ on the cross,” and “the open arms of the father receiving the prodigal.” Central to this idea is “the will to embrace”, the will “to give ourselves to others and welcome them” before addressing issues of truth or justice. Truth and justice must be addressed before there is full reconciliation, but the unconditional grace of self-giving comes first. Embrace only makes sense against the background of an all-pervasive evil of “exclusion.” To embrace others we must distance ourselves from a culture that defines them by their “otherness.” One chapter will examine what this means for reconciliation in the most fundamentally human example: the relation between the genders. In using varied biblical texts throughout the book, Volf intends to interpret them in the light of the conviction that: at the center of the New Testament lies the narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ understood as an act of obedience toward God and an expression of self-giving love for his followers as well as the model for the followers to imitate. |
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