New Releases by MIROSLAV VOLF

The holding of certain convictions about Jesus Christ and a commitment to the justice he articulated require a holistic Christology for any vision of restorative justice to be deemed ''Christian''. A holistic Christology by which is meant a Christology incorporating an integrated understanding of Jesus'' life, death, resurrection and Spirit, holds that Jesus was crucified in part because he taught and practiced a vision of justice that was based on enemy love. The resurrection of Jesus not only vindicates Jesus teaching and death but reconciles enemies. The presence of the Spirit make justice and reconciliation central concerns for the Christian Church. In presenting this argument, key biblical texts from Luke - Acts are analysed in the context of a dialogue with a range of theological conversation partners, including CFD Moule, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Howard Yoder, Miroslav Volf and Eduard Schweizer. The thesis concludes with the identification of discipleship practices for Christian individuals and expressive models for christian communities that find expression to a consciously biblical vision of restorative justice.

"Full of insight and wisdom for those who wrestle with the challenges of living out Christian faith with the Bible in one hand and today''s newspaper in the other."--John R. Franke Biblical Seminary.

Life at the end of the twentieth century presents us with a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Reaching back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation, Volf proposes the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion. Increasingly we see that exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality and causing us to react out of fear and anger to all those who are not within our (ever-narrowing) circle. In light of this, Christians must learn that salvation comes, not only as we are reconciled to God, and not only as we "learn to live with one another", but as we take the dangerous and costly step of opening ourselves to the other, of enfolding him or her in the same embrace with which we have been enfolded by God.

This compelling collection gathers together articles previously published in "The Christian Century" from 1996 to 2008. The result is a cohesive book that unerringly points away from pettiness and selfishness and toward the love Christians are called to exemplify.

In late 2007 Muslim leaders from around the world together issued in the pages of The New York Times an open letter to Christian leaders inviting cooperation as a step toward peace. That letter, “A Common Word between Us and You,” acknowledged real differences between the two faiths but nonetheless contended that “righteousness and good works” should be the only areas in which they compete. The 138 signatories included over a dozen grand muftis, an ayatollah, and a Jordanian prince, and the document was widely considered a groundbreaking step toward reconciliation between Islam and Christianity — two major religions with a great deal in common. / That original letter and a collaborative Christian response — “Loving God and Neighbor Together” — both appear in this remarkable volume. Building on those original momentous documents, A Common Word further includes subsequent commentary and dialogue between Muslim and Christian scholars addressing critical and frequently asked questions. All in all, this eventful book encapsulates a brave and encouraging move toward harmony and accord between two world religions so often seen to be at odds.

This work looks at giving and forgiving in today''s society and has been chosen as the Archbishop of Canterbury''s official book for Lenten in 2006.

Since the rise of modern industrial society, work has come to pervade and rule the lives of men and women. Although there have been many popular books and church documents on on the Christian understanding of work, this is the first scholarly effort to articulate a developed Protestant theology of work. In Work in the Spirit, Miroslav Volf interprets work from a new perspective - in terms of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. He exhaustively explores the nature of work in both capitalist and socialist societies and considers a variety of work, including industrial, agricultural, medical, political, and artistic work. Examining the importance of alienation in work in industrial and information societies (particularly in the relation of workers to management and technology), he analyzes various forms of such alienation, and elucidates the character of humane work. On the basis of the ÒpneumatologicalÓ theology of work that he develops, Volf rejects the traditional Protestant understanding of work as vocation, and takes the concept of charisma as the cornerstone for his theological reflection on work. He denies that one is ÒcalledÓ to do a particular work irrespective of one''s inclinations, and asserts, instead, that it is our privilege to do the kind of work for which God''s spirit has gifted us. All human work done in accordance with the will of God, Volf argues, is cooperation with God in the preservation and transformation of the world.

In After Our Likeness, the inaugural volume in the Sacra Doctrina series, Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as "gathered community" that he shared with Radical Reformers. Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest a viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due. In the process he engages in a sustained and critical ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiologies of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and the metropolitan John Zizioulas. The result is a brilliant ecumenical study that spells out a vision of the church as an image of the triune God.

This book explores key aspects of the problem of diverse group identities, offering preliminary exegetical and theological perspectives on the encounter with "others." The "politics of difference," the resurgence of ethnic and cultural conflicts in the non-Western world, and the clash between modern technological and traditional cultures place new challenges before Christian theology. "Our book," the authors explain, "is a call to open ourselves to the Spirit of God, the Spirit of mercy, justice, and truth, and help heal our world by embracing others as we remain true to ourselves."