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

by Miroslav Volf

For Christian faith to give up the hope for the final reconciliation—for a reconciliation that can neither be surpassed nor undone—would mean to give itself up. Everything depends, however, on how we understand the final reconciliation and its implication for life in a world of enmity. I will offer here only three brief disclaimers. First, the final reconciliation is not a work of human beings but of the triune God. Second, it is not an apocalyptic end of the world but the eschatological new beginning of this world (Moltmann 1996b, 11ff.). Third, the final reconciliation is not a self-enclosed “totality” because it rests on a God who is nothing but a perfect love. The hope for such “nontotalitarian” final reconciliation is the backdrop against which Christians engage in the struggle for peace under the conditions of enmity and oppression.