Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

by Miroslav Volf

Instead of reflecting on the kind of society we ought to create in order to accommodate individual or communal heterogeneity, I will explore what kind of selves we need to be in order to live in harmony with others.

theologians should concentrate less on social arrangements and more on fostering the kind of social agents capable of envisioning and creating just, truthful, and peaceful societies, and on shaping a cultural climate in which such agents will thrive.

In The Spirit of Life, however, he gives prominence to an aspect of the cross earlier left underdeveloped. The theme of solidarity with the victims (129–31) is supplemented by the theme of atonement for the perpetrators (132–38).

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.

The Orthodox theologian Dumitru Staniloae speaks for the whole Christian tradition when he highlights the “two truths beside which there is no other truth”—“the holy Trinity as model of supreme love and interpersonal communion, and the Son of God who comes, becomes a man, and goes to sacrifice”