Our current book group is studying Miroslav Volf’s 1996 book Exclusion and Embrace, and though I’ve only read the preface and introduction, I’m impressed.

Volf is a Croatian-born theologian who currently teaches at Yale. Hailing from a country torn by ethnic strife, he writes with a deep understanding of the concept of “otherness” and difference. From p. 20:

…”tribal” identity is today asserting itself as a powerful force, especially in cases where cultural heterogeneity is combined with extreme imbalances of power and wealth. It may not be too much to claim that the future of our world will depend on how we deal with identity and difference.

That’s certainly enough to keep you reading. Volf goes on to point out that, while societal conditions are surely relevant factors, he will focus on “what kind of selves we need to be in order to live in harmony with others” (p. 21).

Now, since Volf teaches at Yale, and has been cited by more liberal-leaning types for quite some time now, I was expecting a pretty touchy-feely-can’t-we-all-just-get-along volume of wishy-washiness. But that’s not at all what Volf delivers. Even before chapter 1, he delves into the question of the cross: “…what does it tell us about the character of the Christian self in relation to the other?” (p. 22). He cites Moltmann’s “solidarity” theory of the cross:

The sufferings of Christ are not just his sufferings; they are “the sufferings of the poor and weak, which Jesus shares in his own body and in his own soul, in solidarity with them” (Moltman 1992, p. 130). …On the cross, Christ both “identifies God with the victims of violence” and identifies “the victims with God, so that they are put under God’s protection and with him are given the rights of which they have been deprived (131).”
…
The theme of solidarity with the victims (129-131) is supplemented by the theme of atonement for the perpetrators (132-38). Just as the oppressed must be liberated from the suffering caused by oppression, so the oppressors must be liberated from the injustice committed through oppression.
…
As God does not abandon the godless to their evil but gives the divine self for them in order to receive them into divine communion through atonement, so also should we–whoever our enemies and whoever we may be. p. 23

This attitude toward our enemies is difficult to develop, especially in situations where our enemies are killing us. More on this soon.