Public Faith, A: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good [Hardcover]

Miroslav Volf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2011

Debates rage today about the role of religions in public life. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, various religions come to inhabit the same space. But how do they live together, especially when each wants to shape the public realm according to the dictates of its own sacred texts and traditions? How does the Christian faith relate in the religious pluralism of contemporary public life?

While Volf argues that there is no single way Christian faith relates to culture as a whole, he explores major issues on the frontlines of faith today: 1) In what way does the Christian faith come to malfunction in the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions? 2) What should a Christian's main concern be when it comes to living well in the world today? and 3) How should we go about realizing a vision for human flourishing in relation to other faiths and under the roof of a single state?

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Debates rage today about the role of religion in public life. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, various religions come to inhabit the same space. But how do they live together, especially when each wants to shape the public realm according to the dictates of its own sacred texts and traditions? How does the Christian faith relate in the religious pluralism of contemporary public life?

Renowned theologian Miroslav Volf argues that there is no single way Christian faith relates to culture as a whole. He explores major issues on the frontlines of faith today, addressing questions such as:

• In what way does the Christian faith come to malfunction in the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions?
• What should a Christian's main concern be when it comes to living well in the world today?
• How should we go about realizing a vision for human flourishing in relation to other faiths and under the roof of a single state?

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good.

From the Back Cover

Named One of the Top 100 Books and One of the Top 10 Religion Books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly

Serving the Common Good in Public Life

"Why should Christians use the resources of their faith to speak to and to serve the common good rather than reducing the faith to a message that soothes individuals or energizes them to pursue success? And how can they do that without coercing those who are not Christians? In A Public Faith, Miroslav Volf sets for himself the daunting task of addressing these two deep and urgent questions in a way that is both widely accessible and that takes account of the scholarly literature. He succeeds on all counts. It is a wonderful guide for the perplexed in our times."
--Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University; senior fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia

"Our efforts as people of faith to bring our religious convictions into the public arena have clearly malfunctioned in recent years. But Miroslav Volf does not want us to retreat to a 'private faith' mentality. Instead he offers profound counsel about how faith-based public advocacy can promote the common good in our increasingly pluralistic world. This important book is packed with wisdom!"
--Richard J. Mouw, president and professor of Christian philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary

"Firmly rooted within his own tradition of Christianity, Miroslav Volf has produced an indispensable guide for voices of faith within the arena of public discourse. A Public Faith is arguably the most important book on the topic since H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture."
--Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history, Columbia University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (August 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587432986
• ISBN-13: 978-1587432989
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. He has published and edited nine books and over 60 scholarly articles, including his book Exclusion and Embrace, which won the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wise, Sensible Approach to an Important Subject August 1, 2011

By Tiger CK

Format:Hardcover

Miroslav Volf is one of the most gifted theologians in the country today. He writes in a way that is sophisticated enough to satisfy his academic colleagues yet comprehensible to most readers who are interested in reading thoughtful, serious work about religious issues. In this book, Volf addresses a controversial topic -- the role of religion in the public sphere. In particular, he talks about how people of his own faith, Christianity, should allow their religious values to influence their civic commitments.

As Volf knows, the subject that he talks about is one that naturally raises a great deal of fear and suspicion. Today Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists all fear each others' efforts to increase their influence over public life. At the same time, secularists deem all faiths irrational and are highly suspicious of the imposition of any religious values on culture, politics or society at large.

In a brilliant opening chapter, Volf talks about what he calls "religious totalitarianism," an ideology which advocates that religion dominate all aspects of public life. Although Volf uses the Islamic cleric Sayyid Qutb as an example, he argues that members of any faith can be guilty of religious totalitarianism. On the other end of the spectrum are absolute secularists who claim that religion should play no role at all in public life. Volf believes that we do not need to choose between these two unattractive alternatives. Instead, he contends that it is possible to choose a middle path that makes room for religion in general and Christianity in particular to influence but not dominate the public sphere. He makes his case by focusing on three critical questions. First, how does the Christian faith malfunction in the contemporary world and what can the faithful do to address these malfunctions? Second, what should Christ's followers focus on when it comes to living well in the world today? And finally, how should Christians try to realize their vision of living well in a world that they must share with peoples of other faiths and beliefs.

More so than some of Volf's previous books, A Public Faith is intended strictly for an audience of Christian believers. Volf always writes from the perspective of Christian theology but some of his other works such as "Exclusion and Embrace" are also valuable to skeptics or people of other faiths. Here, however, he specifically avoids writing as a "generic religious person" and to offer a "vision of the role of the followers of Christ in public life." Although some of the general points he makes are in some ways similar to those that Karen Armstrong argues for in her "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life," Volf draws much more explicitly on Christian doctrine and examples from the life of Jesus Christ.

As always, Volf is systematic and insightful as he builds his case while carefully addressing the three critical questions that he poses. He is honest and frank about what he considers Christianity's failures (such as idleness and coerciveness) and poses a challenge for his fellow believers to seek to address them. I found his vision of "engaged faith" that includes recognition of "identity and difference" and "sharing wisdom" ultimately to be a very appealing one. The chapters of the book flow with a great deal of logic and persuasiveness. As a reader who is sick of what both the Bill O'Reilleys and the Rachel Maddows of the world have to say about the role of faith in the public sphere, I was gratified to see an important theologian offer an intelligent moderate approach to the subject. "A Public Faith" make an eloquent call for Christianity to be publicly engaged without seeking to impose itself on other groups.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading for Christians! October 28, 2011

By Robert Cornwall

Format:Hardcover

The never ending question in American life concerns the role religion should play in public life. That is, in a modern, secular, democratic state that values political pluralism, can faith have a constructive role in public life? This question involves the way in which people of faith root their public life in their faith. Theologian Miroslav Volf takes up these kinds of questions in his latest book, in which he advises Christians on the perils, pitfalls, and possibilities of engaging public life from a faith perspective. To do so, however, requires that persons of faith enter the public sphere understanding the dynamics present - it is a politically pluralistic sphere - and so one must not seek to co-opt the conversation or act coercively. Neither an "idling faith," one that is private and inwardly focused, nor one that is aggressively and coercively active is an appropriate response to God's call to be present in the world.

A well known theologian teaching at Yale, and formerly on the faculty of Fuller Seminary, Volf is fresh off the publication of his important engagement with Islam (Allah, Harper One, 2011). As a Croatian Christian who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, Volf has had a front row engagement with both religious pluralism and coercive secularism. In Allah, he tries to create a theological space for engaging Islam in conversation, with a view to seeking the common good, on the basis of a common affirmation of the oneness of God. Here he takes the conversation into the broader context of religious engagement with the public sphere, arguing that there is a place for faith in public life. Indeed, if faith remains private, both faith and public spheres will be impoverished.

Although there are many religious voices in the public sphere, there is a great fear of theocracy present in our conversations. There is a fear of Christian Dominionism and of a radical Islamic theocratic vision on the order of Iran or the Taliban. What these ideologies offer is what Volf calls religious totalitarianism. There is no better example of this than the ideology of Sayyid Qutb. Qutb is a central figure in the development of modern radical Islam, including the ideology behind Al Qaeda. Volf uses Qutb as his example, because he finds this ideologue to be more intellectually rigorous than the Christian options such as Dominionism. With this as one pole, a pole that seeks to impose on single religion on public life, the other pole is a secularism that seeks to completely eliminate religion from public life. Volf seeks to place his position between these two poles. His program is defined as "religious political pluralism."

The goal of this engagement is to create an environment that supports human flourishing. By that, he doesn't mean satisfaction or a feeling of happiness and pleasure. Volf writes that "concern with human flourishing is at the heart of the great faiths, including Christianity" (p. 63). This is true even if we don't show this through our practices. Human flourishing is defined as finding your fit in the created order, and from a Christian perspective this involves the premise that God is love and so to flourish we are called to love God and love our neighbor. By doing this we can, hopefully, overcome the malfunctions of faith (idleness or coercion).

The common good needs the active presence of people of faith, acting from their faith traditions, in a politically pluralistic context. It requires that we forgo any idea of religious totalitarianism or even the idea that we can reach total transformation of the world. This premise, that one can oppose religious totalitarianism and support political pluralism, is fully defensible from a Christian perspective, and the same is true of other faith traditions, including Islam.

As one who believes in the importance of engaging the public realm with a perspective rooted in my faith tradition, I find that Volf's book is extremely helpful. It is a program that offers a way of engaging the public sphere in a noncoercive way while recognizing the differences that faith traditions bring to the conversation. It is a call to working together in a project of moving toward human flourishing and the common good that moves us beyond simply the pursuit of happiness in terms of pleasure. It rejects totalitarianism or retreat from public life. That is, Volf doesn't seem to agree with the idea that the church can function as a separate entity from the public square and hope its witness gets caught by those within the public sphere. That is, he's not an Anabaptist or a Hauerwasian.

If one reads Volf together with Parker Palmer's recent book "Healing the Heart of Democracy" (Jossey Bass, 2011), one will have, I believe, the foundations for engaging the public square in a way that will bring healing and hope and the common good to our world. This is a must read for every Christian who seeks to enter the public square as a person of faith.

Review Copy provided by publisher

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Engaging January 16, 2012

By Jeffrey Borden VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been meaning to review this book for quite some time now, but it took longer to read it than I thought it would. At just over one hundred fifty pages (not counting the notes section), it is not that long of a read. The point of it taking me longer to read than anticipated was my feeling "over my head" quite often. There are over two-hundred references noted in the book and most of them unknown or unread by me. It was necessary for me to put the book down on more than a few occasions to reflect and research on what I had read. I must say it was worth my time and worth every minute of my effort. I appreciate the challenge the book was for me to read and I appreciate the challenge to me personally with the call to exercise and integrate my faith in ways and in places I might not have been so eager to enter previous to reading Volf's thesis in A Public Faith.

Volf relates the sum of the premise for this volume in his introduction stating; "My contention in this book is that there is no single way in which Christian faith relates and ought to relate to culture as a whole. The relation between faith and culture is too complex for that. Faith stands in opposition to some elements of culture and is detached from others. In some aspects faith is identical with elements of culture, and it seeks to transform in diverse ways yet many more. Moreover, faith's stance toward culture changes over time as culture changes. How, then, is the stance of faith toward culture defined? It is--or it ought to be--defined by the center of the faith itself, by its relation to Christ as the divine Word incarnate in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It is with this contention that Volf seeks to explore three questions he poses within the pages of A Public Faith. The questions follow:

1. In what ways does the Christian faith malfunction in the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions (chapter1-3)?
2. What should be the main concern of Christ's followers when it comes to living well in the world today (chapter 4)?
3. How should Christ's followers go about realizing their vision of living well in today's world in relation to other faiths and together with diverse people with whom they live under the roof of a single state (chapters 5-7)?

Personally, I found chapter one, Malfunctions of Faith, fascinating. Volf frames this piece in a framework he calls "ascent and return" malfunctions and bases the discussion on the prophetic illustrations of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. To quote Volf's definition of these points, he describes ascent malfunctions as "the result from breakdowns in the prophet's encounter with the divine and reception of the message." He goes on to say, "Every ascent malfunction is at the same time a return malfunction." If my paraphrase is correct, the return malfunction further compromises the message or word of God by transforming it in their own name or in the name of some alien god... or god of their own making. This chapter is full of brilliant thinking I had previously been unexposed to; for instance, he describes the concept of idolatric substitution as one of the ascent malfunctions using the golden calf story from the Exodus narrative. It is introduction to some of these (for me) new concepts using stories I understand or am familiar with that was helpful in preparing me for the next chapters of the book. I will say again, this first chapter was fascinating to me.

Chapter two continue with greater detail and explanation describing practical malfunctions of faith. Specifically, chapter two addresses the malfunction of idleness as it regards faith. Volf shares three main reasons for faith's idling: (1) for some people, the faith they embrace demands too much, so they pick and choose, as in a cafeteria, filling up their tray with sweets but leaving aside the broccoli and fish. (2) Believers find themselves constrained by large and small systems in which they live and work; to thrive, or even to survive, they feel that they must obey the logic of those systems, not the demands of faith they embrace. (3) Concerning the faith itself, the faith either is not applied to new circumstances or does not seem relevant to contemporary issues. Volf goes on to provide counters to idleness with suggestions on how we might understand and practice an active faith through blessing, deliverance, guidance, and meaning.

I must admit I got a little bit bogged down in chapters three and four having to stop several times, put the book down, and really thing through what I was reading. I was relieved when Volf neared the end of chapter four with this summary recap of part one of the book:

"Most malfunctions of faith are rooted in a failure to love the God of love or a failure to love the neighbor. Ascent malfunctions happen when we don't love God as we should. We either love our interests, purposes, and projects, and then employ language about God to realize them (we may call this "functional reduction"), or we love the wrong God (we may call this "idolatric substitution"). Return malfunctions happen when we love enither our neighbor nor ourselves properly--when faith either merely energizes or heals us but does not shape our lives so that we live them to our own and our neighbors' benefit, or when we impose our faith on our neighbors irrespective of their wishes.

The challenge facing Christians is ultimately very simple: love God and neighbor rightly so that we may both avoid malfunctions of faith and relate God positively to human flourishing. And yet, the challenge is also complex and difficult..." (p.73)

Amen. Complex and difficult indeed.

Chapters five and six are two more extraordinary discourses on very practical applications of living the Christian faith in a pluralistic society. Chapter five, Identity and Difference, addresses the identity of the Christian within the context of a society or community. The context being realized as having an identity that is different from the mainstream of the community...remaining unique, being seen as different, but not being separate... able to contribute without being completely absorbed: This is my paraphrase. Volf summarizes his thoughts as follows; "To become a Christian means to divert without leaving. To live as a Christian means to keep inserting a difference into a given culture without ever stepping outside that culture to do so."

Chapter six is titled Sharing Wisdom and also ranks as one of my favorite chapters of the book. Volf's ideas about sharing wisdom was affirming and convicting at the same time for me. The past few years has taught me much in the vein of what is shared in this chapter. I continue to be stretched in my faith and my learning to be Christ-like with teaching like I have found in this chapter. I think anyone reading this book will be stretched similarly if they can maintain an openness to hear what is shared in it.

I think this is an important book; timely in nature, sobering and challenging in its message, and hopeful with its suggestions for correction. I pray it falls into right hands, leaders who are humble, intelligent, vocal, and confident about what God is doing in the world. I'll close my review with a final quote from Volf on "sharing wisdom."

"Sharing religious wisdom makes sense only if that wisdom is allowed to counter the multiple manifestations of self-absorption by givers and receivers alike and to connect them with what ultimately matters--God, whom we should love with all our being, and neighbors, whom we should love as ourselves." (p.117)

A great book; it may not appeal to a broad demographic, but for those who are willing to endure the challenges it presents, there is "much gold to be mined."