Miroslav Volf Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“The goal of pursuit of justice must not simply be that justice happens but that reconciliation also happens.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“If evangelism isn't an expression of love of neighbor, it isn't Christian evangelizing. And love of neighbor includes not only what I say to the neighbor but how I say that.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "Christians and Muslims". "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly" with Bob Abernethy, www.pbs.org. September 19, 2008.
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“I don't think we need to agree with anyone in order to love the person. The command for Christians to love the other person, to be benevolent and beneficent toward them, is independent of what the other believes.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“After my engagement with Muslim friends, I pray more than I used to pray. My prayer life has been enriched by my encounter with some Muslims, encouraged by their devotion and also enriched by the ways in which they pray. Have I compromised in this way at all? No, to the contrary, I've gone deeper in my faith and I think my love for God has been deepened and made more intelligent in a sense, more rich by that very encounter.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
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“Theology is not only about understanding the world; it is about mending the world.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“If we don't learn to live with one another we will not live. We will either love each other as neighbors or we won't be. I believe that it is an insult to me as a Christian to say that I cannot love as neighbor somebody who thinks differently than I do.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly" with Bob Abernethy, www.pbs.org. September 19, 2008.
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“Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the Triune God- a "foursome," as it were-- for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“Does a person have a right to change his or her own religion? This is a fundamental human right, just like a right to freedom of speech.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
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“Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans and myself from the community of sinners.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : Judith M. Gundry Volf, Miroslav Volf (1997). “A Spacious Heart: Essays on Identity and Belonging”, p.57, Gracewing Publishing
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“Christ came to transform us from never enough people - to more than enough people; that through his poverty we may become rich.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“If you take the 'love your enemy' out of Christianity, you've 'unChristianed' the Christian faith.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“In good relationships, we are happy to grow as the other person becomes part of us and who we are.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
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“In a way, fraud in business is no different from infidelity in marriage or plagiarism in scholarly work. Even people committed to high moral standards succumb.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“Rules help govern and steer a relationship along, so they're good things. But they become bad things when they become the narrow gate though which the relationship must always pass. When this happens, the rules become the basis for the relationship and, in a sense, become a substitute for the relationship.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“Christians believe that there will be a Judgment Day at the end. And it is my belief that on that day justice will be done and there will be a reconciliation between those who have profoundly injured one another takes place.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“The difference between justice and forgiveness: To be just is to condemn the fault and, because of the fault, to condemn the doer as well. To forgive is to condemn the fault but to spare the doer. That's what the forgiving God does.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
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“Whatever the reasons, when forgiveness happens it is always a miracle of grace. The obstacles in its way are immense”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“God is the utterly loving giver. God doesn't just love. God is love.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“To triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one. The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated; the second victory, when evil is returned. After the first victory, evil would die if the second victory did not infuse it with new life.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : Miroslav Volf (2006). “The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World”, p.9, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
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“Some Jews and Muslims accuse Christians of being idolatrous for believing in the Trinity. My response to both groups is that they fundamentally misunderstand the Christian understanding of the Trinity.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
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“For Christian faith not to be idle in the world, the work of doctors and garbage collectors, business executives and artists, stay-at-home moms or dads and scientists needs to be inserted into Gods story with the world. That story needs to provide the most basic rules by which the game in all these spheres is played.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“For Christians, faith is a precious good, the most valuable personal and social resource. When it is left untapped, the common good suffers - not just the particular interests of Christians.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“The significance of the crucifixion is not only what God does for us; consistently throughout the New Testament the crucifixion is portrayed as the pattern that we are to follow. It is a model of social behavior toward the other as well as a statement about what God has done for us.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "The Clumsy Embrace". Interview with Kevin D. Miller, www.christianitytoday.com. October 26, 1998.
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“Prejudice is a form of untruthfulness, and untruthfulness is an insidious form of injustice.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "Did 9/11 Make Us Morally 'Better'?" by Miroslav Volf, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 7, 2011.
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“Honoring everyone contains the promise of possibility.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "Honor Everyone". Interview with Travis Reed, www.theworkofthepeople.com. 2012.
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“Absolute hospitality would in no way amount to the absence of violence. To the contrary, it would enthrone violence precisely under the guise of nonviolence because it would leave the violators unchanged and the consequences of violence unremedied.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
“There is no more effective way to radicalize American Muslim youth than for political leaders to make public displays of prejudice against all Muslims. Suspicion will undermine their sense of identification with America and alienate some from both the culture and from politics.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "Muslim Radicalization Hearings: A Political Spectacle That Perpetuates Prejudice" by Miroslav Volf, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 9, 2011.
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“If we can exit a relationship, pressure to reconcile lessens; if we must live with those who have wronged us, we are pushed to reconcile.”
-- Miroslav Volf -
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“For many Americans, Osama bin Laden is the paradigmatic Muslim, an absurd conviction for anyone who has lived with Muslims.”
-- Miroslav VolfSource : "Did 9/11 Make Us Morally ‘Better’" by Miroslav Volf, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 7, 2011.
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