Exclusion and Embrace, Revised and Updated

A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

By: Miroslav Volf

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Life in the 21st century presents a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Is there any hope of embracing our enemies? Of opening the door to reconciliation? Reaching back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation, Volf proposes the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion.

Increasingly we see that exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality and causing us to react out of fear and anger to all those who are not within our (ever-narrowing) circle. In light of this, Christians must learn that salvation comes, not only as we are reconciled to God, and not only as we "learn to live with one another", but as we take the dangerous and costly step of opening ourselves to the other, of enfolding him or her in the same embrace with which we have been enfolded by God.

Since September 11, 2001, and the subsequent epidemic of terror and massive refugee suffering throughout the world, Volf revised Exclusion and Embrace to account for the evolving dynamics of inter-ethnic and international strife.

©2019 Abingdon Press (P)2021 Tantor

Outstanding.

I listened to the first couple hours of this book, and then decided the themes were so complex I ended up purchasing and reading the paper back. This turned out to be very helpful for me. This is a challenging book to be sure, and although I may need to read it again at some point, I took a lot of notes and found the book to be a great blessing. Volf’s biblical ideas about embrace rooted in God’s trinitarian dynamic love for himself (perichoresis), and from the overflow of this love his costly self-giving work culminating in Christ’s work on the cross for us who (post fall) by nature were enemies (the embrace of justice) to be extremely inviting. In the midst of the tragic violence and selfishness of the world which we inhabit, which sadly so often inhabits our own hearts, his gracious arguments (including our interdependent “porous” identities) are deeply welcomed.

Fantastic work about a tough topic

This is a colossal book about a colossal topic. Volf does a great job of wrestling with the topic of “the other”, in a Christian context. He pulls no punches and also avoids easy answers, yet somehow the reader comes away feeling that much (though far from all) has been achieved by the end. Highly recommend this book for anyone struggling with how to live out Christ’s call to turn the other cheek in our modern polarized, violent world.

Very thought provoking!

Very thorough and thought provoking. I will reread this book and use it as a reference

In-depth exploration of opposing viewpoints

This is a fantastic theological work that explores numerous standpoints on a very controversial topic.