I have a running list of theologians that I want to read that I've only read blips of this term. Is it crazy that I'm reading theology on my break? Well, I must love my field of study...which is a good sign.
I picked up Miroslav Volf today. We read a section from his "Exclusion and Embrace" book that was quite formative to my interpersonal perspective. Below is my annotated bibliography/WDP writing thing from October when we read it. Perhaps it will be a glimpse into my processing.
Volf, M. (1996) Chapter 2. Exclusion and Embrace. (pp 68-98). Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Volf notes that the ideal of inclusion that is predominant in western modern conversation is something that is easier said than done. People who speak about inclusion may not realize the depth and the consequences of what inclusion means. Yet Volf chooses to explore the idea of exclusion. “Exclusion is barbarity within civilization, evil among the good, crime against the other right within the walls of self” (p. 60). Volf uses the creation narrative to show the idea of “separating and binding”. Instead of insidiously excluding, this shows the boundary of a person by affirming that people are separate beings, yet we are bound together in various forms of community. Exclusion seeks to destroy the “separate and binding” idea. It cuts connections yet seeks assimilation. If people don’t assimilate, history has shown it can result in ignoring their existence, or driving out of the land, or genocide. Volf brings Jesus into the picture by using Galatians 2:20. Jesus gives freedom by a process of de-centering and re-centering with Christ at the center. “Exclusion names what permeates a good many of sins we commit against our neighbors, not what lies at the bottom of all sins” (p. 72). Jesus brings the proper definition of sin by renaming behavior and then remaking a person. Sin has a pursuit of false purity (cleaning out the “impure”). It can result in elimination, assimilation, domination, abandonment. People often shift blame, especially in the ugly cycle of victim and perpetrator. Every persond has this sick desire for evil. It goes to the core of us. Volf ends the chapter by giving a look at the Cain and Abel story. God sided with Abel, the underdog, and Cain acts out of his view of what is unfair. Even though Cain gives a snide remark to God after the fact, God protects him in an attempt to end the cycle of perpetrator-victim.
I love this piece. I studied intercultural and immigration stories as an undergrad, and this brings me deeper into the nature of sin with those stories and the healing that Christ has for us. It’s important that Americans, who tend to disassociate ourselves from the “other”, listen to Volf who came out of the oppression of the Soviet Regime, where history is kept very close at hand.
