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Exclusion, Embrace, Reconciliation: A Conversation with Miroslav Volf

By Stan Friedman

CHICAGO, IL (September 15, 2006) - Miroslav Volf author of Exclusion and Embrace and Free of Charge, has written extensively on forgiveness and reconciliation. But for this theologian and native of Croatia, these topics are not purely theological musings: they are Christian truths worked out amid the violence of war.

In early 1990s, during the war in Bosnia, Volf was lecturing on forgiveness when his mentor, Jürgen Moltmann asked him if he could even forgive and embrace a murderous group of Serbian fighters.

The question left Volf speechless. Writing about it later he said:

For months now the notorious Serbian fighters called “cetnik” had been sowing desolation in my native country, herding people into concentration camps, raping women, burning down churches, and destroying cities. I had just argued that we ought to embrace our enemies as God has embraced us in Christ.

Can I embrace a cetnik—the ultimate other, so to speak, the evil other? What would justify the embrace? Where would I draw the strength for it? What would it do to my identity as a human being and as a Croat? It took me a while to answer, though I immediately knew what I wanted to say. “No I cannot—but as a follower of Christ I think I should be able to.”

That question led Volf to write Exclusion and Embrace, a book Christianity Today called one of the 100 most important books of the twentieth century.”

On September 8, Volf visited North Park University, to talk about his new book, The End of Memory: Mistreatment, Memory, Reconciliation, due out in December.

Stan Friedman, staff writer for Covenant News Service, sat down with Volf for an interview prior to the professor’s lecture.

CNS: The world no longer seems to be satisfied with an eye for an eye. Now it seems to be 10 eyes for an eye. How can people realistically expect there ever to be peace in regions such as the Middle East?

VOLF: Vengeance seals the nail in the coffin for reconciliation. In the world of vengeance, there is only non-redemption. It almost takes a movement, not just in individual lives, but also at the social level. The reinforcing cycle of violence has to be halted. Every step towards reconciliation is a step of hope—like Abraham journeying into an unknown land.

There must be a hopeful expectation that God will act. It is the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is based on human possibilities in a situation. Hope is built on divine providence. Abraham was 100 years old. There was no reason for optimism.

CNS: How can people of different ethnic and religious groups find peace when their views of justice can be so different?

VOLF: Sectarianism is not the only problem. People invoke God and they deepen the conflict. One way of reacting is to think that the less religion [there is], the better. But a different way to respond to the problem is to respect religion but reject the manipulation of God.

We manipulate God when we just ask him to bless our actions. We’re willing to use God as a performance-enhancing drug and not follow God’s commands.

CNS: There have been moves toward peace, such as in the Middle East—but can they be sustained in the face of violence?  

VOLF: We are drawn to violence. We go back to thinking that the only way to respond to violence is violence and that an entire culture is violent. For example, the media always reports on the violence in the cities, and then people think that cities are violent. That’s not really true; it’s only a small slice of the city.

On the other hand, in Yugoslavia, we are hoping against hope that the violence doesn’t happen, and then we’re baffled when it does.

CNS: How do we know when we’ve won a war on terror?

VOLF: “War on terror” is bad terminology. It’s one thing if a writer uses the words in a metaphorical sense. When a government declares a war on terror, it’s not clear who it’s against and what constitutes a victory. It would be better if we talked about a struggle against terror.

It is said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, but it also is the seed of the anti-church.

CNS: How can we begin to make a positive difference in this conflict in which there seems to be no end in sight?

VOLF: We need to strengthen the voice of moderate Islam. We need to start high-level dialogues with high-level Christians who have a strong amount of influence on the U.S. government.

We need to repair the image of the other. Demonization is good for fighting and for politicians but it is bad for statesmanship. It’s certainly not good for peacemaking.

CNS: Some people might think from some of your writings and talks that you are a pacifist, but that is not the case. Although that is your strong leaning, you have said you agree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s decision to participate in the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler.

VOLF: Some of my pacifist friends don’t like the last two pages of Exclusion and Embrace, when I talk about God’s wrath and judgment. I believe in deterrence. If we are going to use violence, however, I believe it should only be as a police force.  It’s a necessary evil sometimes.

CNS: How can Christians in the United States expect people around the world to reconcile after having endured such violence when we can’t get along here in our own country?

VOLF: Many people in the church have been more interested in their political concerns than their theological convictions. I wonder what their core theological convictions are.
It would be fascinating to ask, “What makes you tick theologically?” It’s like their theological convictions are a byproduct.

I want to appeal to the center of the gospel. In the heat of the battle they forget that they have a very robust center.

CNS: What is that center?

VOLF: In my book Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, I talk about God being a generous God, a giving God. He’s not a Santa Claus, but he’s not a negotiating God. We live by God’s generosity.

I’ve been surprised, actually, how extremely well-received [the book has been] by the Left and the Right. It’s strange that people in this country who are so divided along cultural lines would both like this book.

CNS: You often write for Christian Century and have tended to draw rave reviews from the Sojourners crowd. Who else has been been positive?

VOLF: Marvin Olasky [editor-in-chief of World Magazine] has interviewed me several times and said many positive things about the book, and James Kennedy [director of Coral Ridge Ministries] has said nice things about the book.

Exclusion and Embrace can be purchased online at Covenant Bookstore.

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