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Miroslav Volf

Miroslav Volf Quotes

Theologian

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Famous Miroslav Volf Quotes

“All sufferers can find comfort in the solidarity of the Crucified; but only those who struggle against evil by following the example of the Crucified will discover Him at their side. To claim the comfort of the Crucified while rejecting His way is to advocate not only cheap grace but a deceitful ideology. Within the overarching theme of self-donation the theme of solidarity must be fully affirmed, for it underlines rightly the partiality of divine compassion towards the ‘harassed and helpless’.”

ReligionSufferingSpiritualityChristianityEthicsTheologySolidarityThe PoorSocial Ethics
Book:Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
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“To live with integrity, it is important to know what's right and what's wrong, to be educated morally. However, merely KNOWING is not enough. Virtuous character matters more than moral knowledge. The reason is simple: like the self-confessing apostle Paul in Romans 7, most of those who do wrong know what's right but find themselves irresistibly attracted to its opposite. Faith idles when character shrivels”

CharacterFaithVirtueMoralityIntegrityRight And WrongWorksRomansSt PaulFaith Without Works Is DeadMoral Knowledge
Book:A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good
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“The memory of the wrong suffered is also a source of my own non-redemption. As long as it is remembered, the past is not just the past; it remains an aspect of the present. A remembered wound is an experienced wound. Deep wounds from the past can so much pain our present that, as Toni Morrison puts it in Beloved, the future becomes“a matter of keeping the past at bay” (Morrison 1991, 52).22 “All things and all manner of things” cannot be well with me today, if they are not well in my memory of yesterday. Even remaking the whole world and removing all sources of suffering will not bring redemption if it does not stop incursions of the unredeemed past into the redeemed present through the door of memory. Since memories shape present identities, neither I nor the other can be redeemed without the redemption of our remembered past. “To redeem the past… that alone do I call redemption,”

MemoryRedemption
Book:Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
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“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.”

ThinkingWayHas BeensMadeUsedPrayerGoneRichPrayingIntelligentDeeperContraryDevotionGod LoveEncountersEngagementI PrayPrayer Life
Author: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.”

WorldNeedsStoriesHomeChristianArtistGamesMomDadDoctorsScientistExecutivesSpheresIdleGarbageCollectorsChristian FaithStay At HomeStay At Home Mom
Author:Miroslav Volf
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“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.”

IfsNeedsFirstsTwoHappensDiesEvilReturnVictoryDeedsTriumphNew LifeTheologianPerpetratorsProtestantismInfusion
Book:The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World
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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.”

HumansPersonsSelfChristianThreeHuman BeingsDivineLonelyCommunionDeitiesCommunion With GodNew RelationshipChristian GodFoursomes
Author:Miroslav Volf
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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.”

WayViolenceAmountConsequenceAbsolutesAbsenceContraryNonviolenceHospitalityGuiseConsequences Of Violence
Book:A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good
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“If no one remembers a misdeed or names it publically, it remains invisible. To the observer, its victim is not a victim and its perpetrator is not a perpetrator; both are misperceived because the suffering of the one and the violence of the other go unseen. A double injustice occurs-the first when the original deed is done and the second when it disappears.”

IfsFirstsDoneRememberSufferingNamesViolenceOriginalsVictimRemainsInjusticeDeedsDisappearInvisibleUnseenObserversPerpetratorsMisdeeds
Author:Miroslav Volf
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