Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf

I don't usually just quote authors at length, but this first paragraph really hit home...

After I finished my lecture Professor Jurgen Moltmann stood up and asked one of his typical questions, both concrete and penetrating: "But can you embrace a cetnik?" It was the winter of 1993. 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? What would it do to my identity as a human being and as a Croat? It took me awhile 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." In a sense this book is the product of the struggle between the truth of my argument and the force of Moltmann's objection. (9)

That is how Miroslav Volf opens his book, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. I had heard this book, written in 1996, was exceptional. This opening paragraph of the preface leads me to believe the reputation is merited.

So many questions rolled through my mind during just this opening paragraph. The most important: how can I update Moltmann's question? That is, who are MY enemies? and am I willing to embrace THEM? Other questions arise as well, such as: what possible conditions are there for this "embrace"? what does embrace even look like?

But I think there is an even more terrifying question that must be asked: what if I don't want to embrace? What if I am content with you over there and me over here? What if...

These are the questions I created this blog for. I don't have all the answers. I do know this: what ever the answers are, they will not be easy.