Last week I attended the Emergent Theological Conversation with Miroslav Volf at Yale Divinity School. Volf has written two of my favorite books: Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation and After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. He also edited a profound collection of articles in The Future of Hope: Christian Tradition Amid Modernity and Postmodernity. The intention of his most recent book, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, is to make his work accessible to a wider audience.

A native of Croatia, Volf speaks with an accent that reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, though not quite as thick. This actually made the discussion more interesting for me. As a student of the “Schwarzeneggerian” genre – I’ve seen every one of his films except Kindergarten Cop – I enjoyed imagining that my favorite sci-fi/action star was speaking about the most profound truths possible.

The conference was aptly titled – this was truly a theological conversation. Names such as Jürgen Moltmann, Karl Barth, Frederick Nietzsche, Stanley Hauerwas, and John Zizioulas were repeatedly mentioned with little or no explanation – the audience was simply expected to keep up.

For three days straight, Volf demonstrated his theological acumen by answering questions posed by Tony Jones and a shifting panel of other church leaders. Because of the informal nature of each session, Volf jumped from topic to topic.

Following are a few of the ideas that struck me as worthy of future reflection (in other words, they prompted me to take notes). I offer them to you in no specific order. None of them are word-for-word quotes, so any mistakes in reflecting Volf’s actual statements are completely mine. I’m sure that I often hear only what I want to hear, so what I thought Volf said may actually be nothing more than what I wanted to hear Volf say. (Pastors, speakers, and teachers know what I’m talking about!)

On Exclusion and Embrace. Although Volf emphasizes our need to wholly embrace others – including our enemies – he recognizes that proper boundaries are good and necessary. In the Genesis account, God creates by defining boundaries. No boundaries = no thing. Things only exist in respect to their relationship to other things, which comes about through proper boundaries. Chaos and disorder are consequences of a world without boundaries. Therefore, it is naïve to think that a true embrace of others involves the complete loss of boundaries. In some way, we Christians must remain open to embracing others while maintaining creative boundaries. This is a difficult balance to maintain.

During the time Volf was speaking about this, I was reminded of words I recently read from Brian McLaren’s upcoming book, The Secret Message of the Kingdom. In the book he speaks of two dangers: “dangers of hostile exclusion and dangers of naive inclusion” (165). McLaren argues for a middle position that protects from the two dangers, a way he calls “purposeful inclusion.” This way is paradoxical: “to be truly inclusive, the kingdom must exclude exclusive people; to be truly reconciling, the kingdom must not reconcile with those who refuse reconciliation; to achieve its purpose of gathering people, it must not gather those who scatter. The kingdom of God has a purpose, and that purpose isn’t everyone’s cup of tea” (169).

On Atheists. Volf argued that our embrace must be willing to include even atheists. Indeed, one of his most compelling statements was that we need “good atheists” to participate in our theological discussions. Why? It is a grand thing to deny such a grand thing, namely, God. The Yale Daily News quoted Volf as saying, “I think that often atheists are closer to God than any theists, than any Christians. It’s taking God seriously to rebel against God.” Volf argued that a Christian’s practical indifference to God is worse than an atheists’ anger of denial. At least atheists take God seriously – even in their denial. Sometimes this cannot be said of some followers of Christ. Volf encouraged us to read Frederick Nietzsche to hear prophetic challenges the church needs to hear delivered by a professed atheist.

On Relationships. Volf rejects individualism as an illusion. There is no such thing as an individual, only a social self. All of us – believer and atheist alike – have a relationship with God. Ultimately, there is no escape from a relationship to God. The myth of an isolated individual completely detached from God who possesses only the possibility of relationship to God (and, for that matter, others) is just that – a myth. We are born in and from relationships; we are created for relationships.

Perhaps we need to modify our theological language to reflect this (the following are completely my thoughts, so don’t blame Volf). Evangelicals often speak of people’s need for a relationship with God. Perhaps it would be better to say that we all, as creatures, are related to God. What we need, as creatures related to God, is to respond appropriately to this relationship by embracing God’s transforming Spirit so that we can know God in a much deeper way than our fundamental relatedness through creation. Perhaps an analogy will help: As children, we are related to our parents by creation. But the goal is not simply to remain at this level. The goal of a healthy relationship is to advance to a deeper intimacy that is rooted in but transcends our creaturely relatedness and leads to personal transformation. These are just initial thoughts about how to make this truth practical and accessible. They may, ultimately, be unhelpful, confusing, or just plain wrong!

On God. It was refreshing to hear Volf’s balanced and reverent reflections on a personal relationship with God. He said that God is a “difficult character.” He rejects the “half-sentimental, half-domesticated” popular conception of God. He admits that sometimes he adores God, sometimes he curses God; sometimes he finds great joy in God, sometimes he finds God completely upsetting.

In the final session, Volf critiqued the view of God that portrays a God obsessed with his own glory. He bluntly declared this to be heresy. Practically speaking, when one’s theology begins with a self-obsessed God, it is hard to convince people not to be self-obsessed. God is not self-obsessed, but self-giving. We glorify God by celebrating God’s immense generosity – by enjoying God and God’s gifts. I was reminded of Irenaeus (ca. 130-202) who taught that the glory of God is humanity fully alive!

On the Church. Volf critiqued theologies that focus on the church as a self-contained body politic to the exclusion of social and political engagement with the world. We must have a theology that embraces the church gathered and the church scattered.

In a moment of personal reflection, he communicated the paradox of a broken church. He said, “I am not a Christian because of the church, but because of the gospel. However, it was only through the broken church that I received the gospel. Because of the gospel, I participate in the church.”

On Worship. Volf had a great comment on liturgy: He said that through liturgy he is inserted into the story of God with God’s people. Yes!

On Conflict. Referring to Jesus’ conflicts with religious leaders in the Gospel of John, Volf proved that Jesus has harsh words for evildoers – but also great love. Jesus goes to the cross for the very ones he rebukes. He dies for all!

On Gift-Giving. Volf offered a reflection on giving that was inspiring because of its accessibility. Instead of calling us to give everything, he offered this “modest proposal”: “Give just a bit more than you expect to receive.” Only in this way can we truly forgive others. Forgiveness is a gift to others. And we can only truly forgive when we give more than we expect to receive. This statement is beautiful in its simplicity and accessibility. It is a wonderful example of a profound theologian bringing great truths down to a practical level!

These are just a few of the notable ideas I brought back with me from the Theological Conversation. All in all, it was a great three days! A big thanks to all who made this event possible!

© Richard J. Vincent, 2006