Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Paperback)

by Miroslav Volf (Author) "After I finished my lecture Professor Jurgen Moltmann stood up and asked one of his typical questions, both concrete and penetrating: "But can you embrace..." (more)
Key Phrases: catholic personality, enlarged thinking, cosmic terror, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Apostle Paul (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Life at the end of the twentieth century presents us with 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

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Abingdon Press (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0687002826
• ISBN-13: 978-0687002825
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,565 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Double vision, March 2, 2000

By	Wade G. Channell "wadechann" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Exclusion and Embrace is one of the most important books I have read in years. Although a very difficult book (having been written for an extremely critical academic community), it was completely worth the effort.

As one recently evacuated from a war in Africa, I began the book looking for answers on how to rebuild a broken society. I found some of those, but more importantly I found an approach to my own life as the macro issues were ultimately based on how each individual operates.

Volf's exploration of "double vision" -- building understanding through seeing from each other's perspectives -- continues to affect me, as I apply it to marriage, friendships, work, and relationships in general.

I cannot recommend the book highly enough.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mind-Expanding Book, December 3, 1999

By	Jeff Nowers (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This is a sane, sober, and suggestive work. It is also nothing short of brilliant. The book will force advocates of liberation theology to gulp hard when they encounter these probing questions: "What happens when, armed with the belief in the rightness of its own cause, one side wins? How will the liberated oppressed live with their conquered oppressors?" (104). Here the primacy of reconciliation is asserted, a notion that liberation theologians have sometimes been accused of trivializing. While the book has not weakened my allegiance to liberation theology, it has made me consider eschatological possibilities and scenarios that I had heretofore overlooked. I was particularly taken with this passing line: "I am not a universalist, but God may be" (299). On the matter of style, some readers might have hoped for more footnotes to alleviate a cluttered text. Citation references are given in the body of the text itself and keyed to a very thorough bibliography. There can be no dismissing the book out of hand, however. Miroslav Volf is an outstandingly able theologian, holding two earned doctorates from Germany's University of Tuebingen. I have spoken with him in person and have found him quite engaging and friendly. His numerous writings need to be pondered diligently.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately not for everyone, September 18, 2005

By	Michael Blyth (Jos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love this book and include it in the top 10 books that have influenced my life. Living in the fault zone between Muslim and Christian civilizations, and having gone through religious riots and killings in our town, the book's message is especially relevant. Reconciliation is something still being worked on.
The book is loaded with insights and nuances that cannot be boiled down to a simple message. However, it is definitely not for everyone. Much of it is extremely academic and as a doctor I could only understand it because I had been doing some reading about postmodern culture, criticism and thinking. As an outsider to Volf's academic discipline, I had the feeling I was reading a message of vital importance encased in something that the academy might accept. If so, I think it was 100% appropriate and hopefully successful. Unfortunately it also limits the audience. It's not a book I can easily get my colleagues to read. I would dearly love to see a rewrite for non-specialists, and have even started editing a readable version for friends here.
Finally, I think that there is something to Rev. Thomas Scarborough's criticism. I do not agree that the book is in any way shallow, but it does not deal satisfactorily with the difficult problem of what to do when "the other" apparently wants nothing except your own destruction, and where "justice" might seem to require the destruction or at least constraint of "the other." This can be a problem, for example, in extremely abusive family relationships, and appears to be true in some political and religious conflicts. Volf addressed this after September 11 in an interview with Christianity Today, and doubtless in other writings and addresses, but I did not get much understanding of this from the book.