Customer Reviews
Thought provoking and profound, a book to be read slowly. - By: , 12 Aug 1999 
This is a tremendous book. While the author writesin an academic style, there is a warmth & questioning tone that makes the method engaging. Perhaps the important thing is that I learned from this book & it is making a differencein my life. The concepts of looking at othersin an attitude of embrace & of love being a necessary precursor to justice are antithetical to my societal training. I was also struck by the section comparing the concepts of covenant & contract. Permanencein relationship, what a novel concept. Volf's book is an honest attempt by a scholar to look at the complexities of relatedness & identity. An attempt to summarize his thoughtsin 1000 words is bound to fail - read the book.
"Exclusion" tears us apart and "embrace" brings us together. - By: , 20 Jun 1999 This is a beautiful & powerful examination of the forces that bring us together or tear us apart. The book contains many profound ideas with abundant illustrations from the Bible & modern history. Volf is a thoughtful Protestant theologian bornin Croatia who has experienced first hand all of the devastating consequences of "exclusion" as practiced between his people & Serbia. He looks at the many ways we exclude people who are different from ourselves by dehumanizing, judging, labeling & demonizing. Thus, we render inferior & less than human, people who differ by race, culture, economic status, religion & gender. And so we perpetuate injustice & victimization.
Volf then shows us that the injustices of "exclusion" can not be righted by revenge. Victims need to repent of what the perpetrators do to their souls lest they mimic the behavior of their oppressors & let themselves be shapedin the mirror image of the enemy. Neither revenge nor reparations can redress old injustices without creating new ones. The only healing path is forgiveness & reconciliation. He suggests that agreement on justice depends on the will to embrace the other & that justice inself will be unjust as long as it does not become a mutual embrace.
He has an interesting view of God's justice. We usually think of justice as treating everybody the same. Volf says that God treats different people differently so that all will be treated justly.
This book is a treasure.
