Miroslav Volf (born September 25, 1956) is a
Croatian Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and
public intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or ...
and Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. He previously taught at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in his native
Osijek,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
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(1979–80, 1983–90) and
Fuller Theological Seminary
Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature.
Fuller consistently has a student body that compr ...
in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
(1990–1998).
Having received two advanced degrees under the German theologian
Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann (born 8 April 1926) is a German Reformed theologian who is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen and is known for his books such as the ''Theology of Hope'', ''The Crucified God'', ''God in Creat ...
, Volf has been described as a "theological bridge builder. The main thrust of his theology is to bring
Christian theology to bear on various realms of public life, such as culture, politics, and economics. He often explores dialogues between different groups in the world—such as between denominations, faiths, and ethnic groups.
Volf has served as an advisor for the
and for several years co-taught a course at Yale with former British prime minister
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
on
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
. He is a frequent commentator on religious and cultural issues in popular media outlets such as
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
,
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, and
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
. Volf won the 2002
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...
and the
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, currently branded as Louisville Seminary, is a seminary affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), located in Louisville, Kentucky. It is one of ten official PC (USA) seminaries, though it current ...
Grawemeyer Award in Religion and his 1996 book ''Exclusion and Embrace'' was named by ''
Christianity Today'' as one of the 100 Most Influential Books of the Twentieth Century.
Family and early life
Miroslav Volf was born on September 25, 1956, in
Osijek,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
, which was then part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
. At the age of five his family moved to the multicultural city of
Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
(then also part of Yugoslavia), where his father became a minister for the small
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement community. Growing up as part of that community, Volf lived doubly on the margins. Religiously, Osijek was predominantly
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and Novi Sad predominantly
Serbian Orthodox
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
; in both towns, Protestants were a small minority and Pentecostals were "a minority of a minority". Politically, Yugoslavia was dominated by
Marxist ideology and
Christian minister
In Christianity, a minister is a person authorised by a church or other religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidanc ...
s were particularly suspect and carefully monitored. Raised in a home marked by a deep and articulate faith, Volf was formed in a Christianity that represented a form of life foreign to the dominant culture around him. As Volf later recalled about his childhood, he did not have the luxury of "entertaining faith merely as a set of propositions that you do or don't assent to".
[Short, ''God's Advocates'', p. 215.] In school, especially in his early teens, the faith of his parents and their community was a heavy burden; Volf's sense of being different from his peers and from the larger culture around him caused him "almost unbearable shame" and he rebelled against faith.
In his mid teens, however, he had a quiet conversion. As the only openly Christian student in his high school, he had to explain why and how the Christian faith makes sense intellectually and is a salutary way of life. This was the beginning of his journey as a theologian. The experience engendered his abiding conviction that living and working on the margins may be an advantage for a theologian of a faith that itself was born on the margins.
Early influences and education
Volf considers faith to be a way of life and theology to be an articulation of that way of life. In many ways, his own theology is an articulation of the way of life he learned from his parents and his nanny. His father found the God of love—or rather, God found him, as his father would say—in the hell of a communist labor camp. His mother, a highly spiritually attuned woman with a yearning for God, had a rich and articulate interior life. His nanny, a noble woman who practiced non-judgmental goodness, led a life marked by joy and hope. In their own time and under their own constraints, each of them lived the kind of "theology" that Volf seeks to explicate and make plausible for diverse peoples living in today's
globalized
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
world. The key themes of his work—God's unconditional love,
justification of the ungodly, love of enemy,
forgiveness, and concern for those who suffer—marked their lives as they lived under political oppression and economic depravation and endured life-shattering personal tragedies.
Among the earliest influences on Volf's intellectual development was Peter Kuzmič, an intellectual and educator and his brother-in-law. He awakened in Volf a love of learning, especially in relation to philosophy. The first present Kuzmič gave the 15-year-old Volf was
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
's ''Wisdom of the West'', an accessible history of Western philosophy (with a discernible anti-Christian bent). Under Kuzmič's guidance Volf undertook an intensive regimen of theological reading (beginning with religious thinkers like
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
and then continuing on to major 20th century theologians, such as
Karl Barth,
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Wolfhart Pannenberg (2 October 1928 – 4 September 2014) was a German Lutheran theologian. He made a number of significant contributions to modern theology, including his concept of history as a form of revelation centered on the resurre ...
, and
Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
). From the start, Volf's theological thinking developed in dialogue with philosophy. At first the major critics of religion—especially
Ludwig Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (; 28 July 1804 – 13 September 1872) was a German anthropologist and philosopher, best known for his book '' The Essence of Christianity'', which provided a critique of Christianity that strongly influenced gene ...
and
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
—figured prominently as dialogue partners; later,
Søren Kierkegaard and
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
exerted significant influence.
Volf studied philosophy and
classical Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
at the
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...
and theology at Zagreb's Evangelical-Theological Seminary. He graduated
summa cum laude in 1977 with a thesis on Ludwig Feuerbach. The same year he started working on his M.A. at
Fuller Theological Seminary
Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature.
Fuller consistently has a student body that compr ...
in Pasadena, California, and graduated summa cum laude in 1979.
[Miroslav Volf, "CV" accessed August 13, 2012.] There he was introduced to
liberation
Liberation or liberate may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War
* "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode
* "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode
Gaming
* '' Liberati ...
and early
feminist theologies, both of which heightened his sense of the importance of faith's public dimensions. During the interim year back in Yugoslavia between his masters and doctoral study, he continued studying
philosophy at the
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia.
Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...
.
From 1980 to 1985 Volf pursued a doctorate at the
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, under the supervision of
Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann (born 8 April 1926) is a German Reformed theologian who is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen and is known for his books such as the ''Theology of Hope'', ''The Crucified God'', ''God in Creat ...
(with compulsory military service back in Yugoslavia interrupting his studies from October 1983 to October 1984). For most of this time he had an ecumenical scholarship from the Diakonisches Werk and lived in the famous Evangelisches Stift (whose former inhabitants included
Johannes Kepler,
Ludwig Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (; 28 July 1804 – 13 September 1872) was a German anthropologist and philosopher, best known for his book '' The Essence of Christianity'', which provided a critique of Christianity that strongly influenced gene ...
,
Friedrich W. J. Schelling, and
Georg W. F. Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
). His dissertation was a theological engagement with
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
' philosophy of labor, and pursuing this project led him to study both
German idealist philosophy and English political economy. He graduated again summa cum laude, and the University of Tübingen awarded him the Leopold Lukas Nachwuchswissenschaftler Preis for his dissertation.
[
In 1989 he received a scholarship from the ]Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Rese ...
and started working on his Habilitation (a post-doctoral degree required by many continental European universities for a call to a professorship).[ The Habilitation was on "Trinity and Communion", a topic stimulated by Volf's long standing involvement in the official dialogue between the Vatican's Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the international Pentecostal movement. He was awarded this degree in 1994. During his Tübingen years, Moltmann became a significant influence, especially the engaged character of Moltmann's thought and the importance of the Trinity for the shape of social life. Also, while doing a Croatian translation of ]Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
's ''On the Freedom of a Christian
''On the Freedom of a Christian'' (Latin: ''"De Libertate Christiana"''; German: ''"Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen"''), sometimes also called ''"A Treatise on Christian Liberty"'' (November 1520), was the third of Martin Luther’s major ...
'', Volf discovered the young Luther, who from then on shaped his thought in major ways (as discernible most clearly in his book ''Free of Charge'').
Teaching
In 1979, the year he completed his studies at Fuller, Volf began his teaching career as a lecturer in systematic theology
Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topic ...
at his alma mater in Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
. Doctoral studies and compulsory military service interrupted his regular teaching, though he continued to offer intensive courses at the same institution. After submitting his doctoral dissertation, Volf returned to full-time teaching. From 1984 until 1991 he served as professor of systematic theology at the Evangelical-Theological Seminary, which had by then moved to his native Osijek.[
In 1991, Volf took a position as an Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller, succeeding his former teacher at that institution, ]Paul King Jewett
Paul King Jewett (1920–1991) was a Christian theologian, author and prominent advocate of the ordination of women and of believer's baptism. He taught systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is credited wi ...
. He remained in this position until 1997 when Fuller appointed him to a full professorship. Throughout this time, he continued to teach in Osijek as his full-time contract with Fuller included provisions for teaching two courses every year in Croatia—an act of generosity on Fuller's part aimed toward rebuilding theological education in Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War. In 1998 Volf took the position that he still holds, that of Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...
in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
.
Theological work
Since Volf considers theology to be an articulation of a way of life, his theological writing is marked by a sense of the unity between systematic theology and biblical interpretation, between dogmatics and ethics, and between what is called "church theology" (e.g., Karl Barth and, later, Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Martin Hauerwas (born July 24, 1940) is an American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke University, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity Schoo ...
) and "political/public theology" (e.g., Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann (born 8 April 1926) is a German Reformed theologian who is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen and is known for his books such as the ''Theology of Hope'', ''The Crucified God'', ''God in Creat ...
and David Tracy). His contributions to theology have for the most part been topical; he wrote on human work, the nature of Christian community, the problem of otherness, violence and reconciliation, the question of memory, and the public role of faith, to name a few issues. But in all his writings, he sought to bring the integrated whole of Christian convictions to bear on the topics at hand.
The systematic contours of Volf's theology are most clearly visible in ''Free of Charge''. A former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...
, commissioned the book as his 2006 Lent Book. Its immediate themes are giving and forgiving as two chief modes of grace, but the book is an accessible introduction and invitation to the Christian faith. In this work, the central themes of Volf's work that receive more in depth treatment in other texts—God as unconditional love, the Trinitarian nature of God, creation as gift, Christ's death on the cross for the ungodly, justification by faith and communal nature of Christian life, love of enemy and care for the downtrodden, reconciliation
Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to:
Accounting
* Reconciliation (accounting)
Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture
* ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...
and forgiveness, and hope for a world of love—come together into a unity. Because it contains frequent reflections on concrete experiences, the book makes visible that Volf's theology both grows out of and leads to a life of faith. Of all his books, ''Free of Charge'' bears the strongest mark of the young Martin Luther's influence.
Christian faith and economics
The first phase of Volf's academic work began with his dissertation and continued through the eighties. His concern then was the relationship between Christian faith and the economy, and in particular the nature and purpose of human everyday work. In his dissertation he engaged Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and it was published in an abbreviated form as ''Zukunft der Arbeit—Arbeit der Zukunft: Der Marxsche Arbeitsbegriff und seine theologische Wertung'' (1988), making a contribution not just to a critical theological evaluation on Marx's philosophy, but also to Marx studies (notably with regard to the influence of Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (; 28 July 1804 – 13 September 1872) was a German anthropologist and philosopher, best known for his book '' The Essence of Christianity'', which provided a critique of Christianity that strongly influenced ge ...
on Marx' theory of economic alienation and affinities between the late Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Ka ...
's ideas and Marx' conceptualization of communist society
In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of co ...
).
In the process of writing the dissertation, Volf formulated an alternative theology of work, primarily situated in ecclesiology
In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church (congregation), Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its ecclesiastical polity, polity, its Church discipline, discipline, its escha ...
and eschatology
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...
, rather than in the doctrine of creation or of salvation, and associated with the Third, rather than the First or Second person of the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
. Volf breaks with the long tradition of Protestant thinking about work as "vocation" (both Luther
Luther may refer to:
People
* Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement
* Luther (give ...
and Calvin Calvin may refer to:
Names
* Calvin (given name)
** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
* Calvin (surname)
** Particularly John Calvin, theologian
Places
In the United States
* Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet
* Calvi ...
, as well as Puritans
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
and later theologians, including Karl Barth, advocated it), and proposes "charisma" as the central theological category with the help of which human work is to be understood. This line of thinking provides a flexible theological account of work, suited for dynamic contemporary societies in which people engage in multiple kinds of work over the course of a life-time, and better coordinated with the multiplicity of ministries that each person can have in the church. Volf published the new, pneumatological account of work in ''Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work'' (1991).
As a result of his academic work on faith and economics, Volf took on the task as the main drafter of the ''Oxford Declaration on Faith and Economics'' (1990). Working groups from various parts of the world sent papers to Volf's desk, and the text he prepared on the basis of those papers was discussed, amended, and finally adopted at a conference in 1990 by a wide array of Christian leaders, theologians, philosophers, ethicists, economists, development practitioners, and political scientists (''Gerechtigkeit, Geist und Schöpfung. Die Oxford-Erklärung zur Frage von Glaube und Wirtschaft'', eds. Herman Sauter and Miroslav Volf, 1992; ''Christianity and Economics in the Post-Cold War Era: The Oxford Declaration and Beyond'', ed. H. Schlossberg, 1994). His own charismatic account of work has found endorsement in that document.
Trinity and community
In 1985 Volf became a member of the Pentecostal side of the official Roman Catholic and Pentecostal dialogue. The theme of the dialogue for the five years that followed was communio, and, together with Peter Kuzmič, Volf wrote the first position paper. In the final year of the dialogue (1989), along with Hervé Legrand, then a professor at the Institut Catholique in Paris, on the Catholic side, he was the main drafter of the final document ("Perspectives on Koinonia"). This intense ecumenical engagement led Volf to explore the relation between the church as a community and the Trinity, and this topic became the subject of his ''Habilitationschrift''.
The dissertation was published as ''"Trinität und Gemeinschaft: Eine Ökumenische Ekklesiologie"'' (1996; translated into English as "After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Triune God", 1998). Volf seeks to both show that a Free church ecclesiology is a theologically legitimate form of ecclesiology
In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church (congregation), Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its ecclesiastical polity, polity, its Church discipline, discipline, its escha ...
(a proposition denied by both Roman Catholic and Orthodox official teaching) and to give that typically individualistic ecclesiology focused on the lordship of Christ a more robustly communal character by tying it to the communal nature of God. Volf takes Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
(Catholic, current pope emeritus Benedict XVI) and John Zizioulas
John Zizioulas ( el, Ιωάννης Ζηζιούλας; born 10 January 1931) is a Greek Orthodox prelate and the current titular Metropolitan bishop of Pergamon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He is one of the most influential ...
(Orthodox bishop) as his dialogue partners, and critiques their anchoring of the communal and hierarchical nature of the church in hierarchical Trinitarian relations (both thinkers gives primacy to the "One", though each does this in a different way). As an alternative, Volf proposes a non-hierarchical account of church as a community rooted in an egalitarian understanding of the Trinity (since hierarchy is, in his judgment, unthinkable with regard to three equally divine persons). Each member of the church has "charisms" for the common good of all in the church, without the strict need of the "one" to symbolize and guarantee unity (though the "one" might be needed for pragmatic rather than dogmatic reasons). Volf's position is not, however, that hierarchical forms of ecclesiology are illegitimate. Though not ultimately ideal, in certain cultural settings hierarchical forms of the church may even be the best possible and therefore preferable ways of reflecting in the church the Trinitarian communion of the one God.
Parallel with pursuing these internal ecclesiological issues in light of ecumenical concerns, Volf explored the nature of the church's presence and engagement in the world—partly to connect his "charismatic" understanding of mundane work (''Work in the Spirit'') with his "charismatic" understanding of the church (''After Our Likeness''). In a series of articles he developed an account of the church's presence in the world as a "soft" and "internal" difference—roughly in contrast with either the "hard" difference of typically separatist (often Anabaptist) and transformationist (often Reformed) positions or the "attenuated difference" of those who tend to identify church and culture with each other (often Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
stances) He has taken up and further developed this position in ''A Public Faith'' (2011). He sums it up as follows: "Christian identity in a given culture is always a complex and flexible network of small and large refusals, divergences, subversions, and more or less radical and encompassing alternative proposals and enactments, surrounded by the acceptance of many cultural givens. There is no single way to relate to a given culture as a whole or even to its dominant thrust; there are only numerous ways of accepting, transforming, or replacing various aspects of a given culture from within".
''Exclusion and Embrace''
Volf is probably best known for ''Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation'' (1996). It won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award
The Grawemeyer Awards () are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology. The religion awa ...
for religion in 2002, and '' Christianity Today'' included it among its 100 most influential religious books of the twentieth century. The book grew out of a lecture Volf gave in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
in 1993, in which his task was to reflect theologically about the Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
, marked by ethnic cleansing, that was raging in his home country at the time.
''Exclusion and Embrace'' deals with the challenges of reconciliation in contexts of persisting enmity in which no clear line can be drawn between victims and perpetrators and in which today's victims become tomorrow's perpetrators—conditions that arguably describe the majority of the world's conflicts. The evocative "embrace" is the central category of the book, and Volf proposed it as an alternative to "liberation" (a category favored by a variety of liberation theologies). Embrace is marked by two key stances: acting with generosity toward the perpetrator and maintaining porous boundaries of flexible identities. Even though it is a modality of grace, "embrace" does not stand in contrast to justice; it includes justice as a dimension of grace extended toward wrongdoers. "Embrace" also does not stand in contrast to boundary maintenance. On the contrary, it presumes that it is essential to maintain the self's boundaries (and therefore pass judgment), but suggests that these boundaries ought to be porous, so that the self, while not being obliterated, can make a journey with the other in reconciliation and mutual enrichment. Volf sees the father in the story of the prodigal son as an exemplar of this stance (the father forgave and accepted the change in his identity as "the-father-of-the-prodigal"). But supremely the stance is exemplified in the death of Christ on the cross for the ungodly (Christ, who assumed humanity, forgave and opened his arms to embrace). Central to Volf's theology of the cross is Christ's death as an "inclusive substitute" for the ungodly, which is to say Christ's dying for them and making space "in God" for them. "Solidarity with victims", central to his teacher Jürgen Moltmann's "theology of the cross", though dislodged from the center in Volf's proposal, still remains a key aspect of God's embrace of humanity.
For Volf, the practice of "embrace" is ultimately rooted in God's Trinitarian nature—in God's love, which is unconditional because it is the very being of God, and in the mutual indwelling of the divine persons (whose boundaries are therefore reciprocally porous). He succinctly articulated the Trinitarian underpinnings of his proposal in "The Trinity is Our Social Program,", a text in which he both argues for a correspondence (on account of God's indwelling presence) between God's Trinitarian nature and human relations and stances, and underscores the ineradicable limitations of such correspondences. The primary limitation consists in the fact that, obviously, human beings are not God; the second consists in the fact that human beings are—equally obviously—sinful, which requires the human "embrace" to be an eschatological category. Volf's main contribution to eschatology, partly triggered by making "embrace" an eschatological category, is his re-thinking of the "Last Judgment." In "The Final Reconciliation" Volf argued that the Last Judgment ought to be understood as the final reconciliation in which judgment is not eliminated but seen as an indispensable element of reconciliation, a portal into the world of love.
''The End of Memory''
A central concern in ''Exclusion and Embrace'' is truth-telling in the context of enmity and conflict, especially truth-telling about the past. Volf's ''The End Of Memory'' (2006) explores this theme in much greater depth. He argues that it isn’t enough that we remember the past (as Elie Wiesel, for instance, has done), but that we must remember the past rightly. There is a pragmatic and not just a cognitive dimension to memory. Memories concerned merely with the truth of what happened and oriented exclusively toward justice often become untruthful and unjust memories; the "shield" of memory then morphs into a "sword," as can be seen in many parts of the world, including the region in which Volf grew up. The proper goal of memory should be reconciliation—"embrace"—which includes justice. In a novel move, Volf proposes that the sacred memory of Christ's passion and resurrection, properly understood, should guide Christians’ remembering of wrongs committed and suffered.
The most controversial part of ''The End of Memory'' is Volf's sustained theological argument, developed in dialogue with Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
, Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
, and Søren Kierkegaard, that remembering wrongs suffered and committed, if done rightly, will ultimately result in non-remembrance of the wrongdoing. The world of love, which is the Christian eschatological hope, will be realized when people and their relationships are healed to such an extent that former wrongdoing would, for lack of affective fuel, no longer come to mind.
Volf traveled domestically and internationally and spoke extensively on issues of reconciliation—in China, India, Sri Lanka, Israel, South Africa, New Zealand, various European countries, and, of course, the United States. For instance, on the morning of 9/11/2001, at 8:34am when the first plane had hit the North Tower, he was finishing his keynote address at the International Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations. His topic was "From Exclusion to Embrace: Reflections on Reconciliation."
Interpretation of scripture
An important feature of Volf's work is the theological interpretation of the scriptures. He believes that any theology—whether it be "liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
" or "evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
", whether it be Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
, Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
, or Protestant—will wither if not nourished through Scriptural engagement and interpretation. Though the interpretation of biblical texts is not the exclusive or even primary mode of his theological work (as it is, for instance, for David F. Ford
David Frank Ford (born 23 January 1948) is an Anglican public theologian. He was the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, beginning in 1991. He is now an Emeritus Regius Professor of Divinity. His research interests incl ...
ith_his_"scriptural_reasoning"_project.html" ;"title="scriptural_reasoning.html" ;"title="ith his "scriptural reasoning">ith his "scriptural reasoning" project">scriptural_reasoning.html" ;"title="ith his "scriptural reasoning">ith his "scriptural reasoning" projector Michael Welker
Michael Welker (born 20 November 1947 in Erlangen, Germany) is a German Protestant theologian and a senior professor of Systematic Theology ( Dogmatics).
Biblical Theology and “general theory” are the main foci of his research. He reached a ...
[with his "realistic biblical theology" project], many of his books contain sustained engagement with biblical texts. In ''Captive to the Word of God: Engaging the Scriptures for Contemporary Theological Reflection'' (2010) he has given both an account of why theological interpretation of biblical texts matters and how it should be undertaken and offered examples of such interpretations (dealing with John's Gospel and Epistles, 1 Peter
The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author presents himself as Peter the Apostle. The ending of the letter includes a statement that implies that it was written from " Babylon", which is possibly a reference to Rome ...
, Ecclesiastes, St. Paul's writings). But many of his books—notably ''Exclusion and Embrace''—contain sections with biblical interpretations.
Interfaith engagement
Volf has brought his theology of embrace to bear on how people of different faiths relate to each other. He participated actively in the work of The Elijah Interfaith Institute
Elijah Interfaith Institute is a nonprofit, international, UNESCO-sponsored interfaith organization which was founded by Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein in 1997.
Headquartered in Jerusalem, Elijah has offices and representatives in different c ...
by writing Christian position papers—both on his own and with his students as co-authors—for the meetings of its Board of Religious Leaders and by participating in its meeting. For a number of years, Volf also participated in the Jewish-Christian dialogue. However, most of his interfaith efforts were directed to the relation between Christianity and Islam. He focuses on Islam partially because he comes from a region in which these two faiths have intersected for centuries (he was born in a city-fortress that the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I started building around 1700 to keep Ottoman Muslims at bay) and partly because he considers the relations between these two religions to be today's most critical interfaith issue.
Since 2004 Volf has taken part in the Building Bridges Seminar, a yearly gathering of Muslim and Christian scholars chaired until 2012 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. His engagement with Islam intensified after the publication of ''A Common Word Between Us and You
"A Common Word between Us and You" is an open letter, from October 13, 2007, from Muslim to Christian leaders. It calls for peace between Muslims and Christians and tries to work for common ground and understanding between both religions, in lin ...
'' (2007). Occasioned by Pope Benedict XVI's speech at the University of Regensburg
The University of Regensburg (german: link=no, Universität Regensburg) is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on 18 ...
, but motivated by a deteriorated relationship between Christians and Muslims (especially in the wake of 9/11), the document, which was originally signed by 138 of the world's most prominent Muslim leaders, argued that what binds Muslims and Christians (and Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, of course) is the dual command to love God and love one's neighbors. It proposes this common ground as a place of dialogue and cooperation between the two religions. Along with the staff at the Center for Faith and Culture ( Joseph Cumming and Andrew Saperstein), Volf drafted Yale Divinity School's response ("Yale Response"), which was endorsed by over 300 prominent Christian leaders (including some of the world's most respected evangelical figures such as John Stott and Rick Warren).
''Allah: A Christian Response'' (2011) is Volf's major work engaging Islam. The book is an exercise in " political theology"; it explores the possibilities of peaceful co-existence of Muslims and Christians "under the same political roof," rather than the merits of Islam and Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
as systems of salvation (an area in which there is substantially more divergence between the two religions than in regard to moral values). The central question of the book is whether Muslims and Christians have a common God and whether, consequently, they have common or at least overlapping central values. In a dialogue with Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Re ...
and Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
, Volf develops his own method of assessing the issue and argues that Muslims and Christians do have a common God, even though each group understands God in different ways, at least in part. The most obvious differences concern the Christian claim that God is Love and that God is the Holy Trinity (though when it comes to the Trinity, Volf argues that Muslims objections seem directed at ideas that the great Christian teachers never actually affirmed). These differences notwithstanding, Christians and Muslims have similar accounts of the moral character of God and therefore of basic human values—the one Creator God who is different from the world is just and merciful, and God commands worshipers to do similar things (e.g., the Ten Commandments inus the Fourth the Golden Rule). Love for and fear of that common God can, therefore, bring Muslims and Christians together, or at least be the basis for resolving conflicts without resorting to violence. As Volf sees it, in Allah as well as in his engagement with Islam more broadly, he is applying to interfaith relations the kind of generous engagement with the other that his theology of embrace recommends.
Church theologian
Volf started preaching early, before he was 18. While living in his native Croatia, he often taught in the church and served for a brief period as interim pastor of a church in Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
. In the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, he continued to preach and teach in churches as well as appear on Christian radio and TV programs. True to his reputation as a "theologian of the bridge," he addressed a wide variety of types of church groups, ranging from speaking to the conference of Episcopal bishops to preaching at Robert Schuller's ''Hour of Power
''Hour of Power'' is a weekly American Evangelist television program broadcast from Shepherd's Grove Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California, near Los Angeles. It is one of the most watched religious broadcasts in the world, seen by approximat ...
'', from teaching for the Trinity Wall Street Church to giving an hour-long interview to James Kennedy Radio ministries, and much in between (such as speaking at conferences of Covenant, Adventist
Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Wil ...
, Vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...
or " Emergent Church" pastors and church workers).
While doing his doctoral work and teaching in Croatia, Volf worked for the Croatian Christian monthly Ivori, re-designing and re-branding the magazine his father, then General Secretary of the Pentecostal Church in Yugoslavia, was publishing. As the magazine's co-editor (1979–84) and editor (1984–89), he regularly wrote editorials and feature articles.[ These took up themes and staked out positions he would later develop in academic publications. Some of these texts were on issues at the intersection between faith and culture (as, for instance, those dealing with the religious dimensions of the poetry of the Serbian poet ]Aleksa Šantić
Aleksa Šantić ( sr-Cyrl, Алекса Шантић, (); 27 May 1868 – 2 February 1924) was a poet from Bosnia and Herzegovina. His poetry reflecting both the urban culture of the region. The most common themes of his poems are social inju ...
, which were the seed for his first book, done in collaboration with the Croatian painter Marko Živković and titled I znam da sunce ne boji se tame The Sun Doesn’t Fear Darkness" Other texts were theological interpretations of biblical texts, notably of 1 Peter. Interest in culture broadly construed and in theological interpretation remained a significant feature of Volf's theological work from then on, as did his commitment to writing for the church and not just for the academy.
When Volf moved to the United States, he continued to write for church audiences. He wrote occasional articles and gave interviews for Christianity Today, and for many years he wrote a regular column "Faith Matters" for ''The Christian Century
''The Christian Century'' is a Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of US mainline Protestantism, the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and review ...
'' (the collection of these is published as ''Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Great Enmities'' 010 010 may refer to:
* 10 (number)
* 8 (number) in octal numeral notation
* Motorola 68010, a microprocessor released by Motorola in 1982
* 010, the telephone area code of Beijing
* 010, the Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the R ...
.
Public theologian
Volf's theological work is predicated on the conviction that "private" and "public" spheres cannot be separated, though they must be distinguished. In recent years he has given increasing attention to the public dimensions and roles of faith.
From 2008-2011 Volf taught a course on "Faith and Globalization" with former British prime minister Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, an interdisciplinary course for students from all parts of Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. The assumption of the course was that globalization processes and faith traditions are some of the most powerful forces shaping today's world and that the world's future depends to a significant degree on how faiths relate to globalization and how, in the context of globalization, faiths relate to each other. Many themes of Volf's work so far came together in this course—the relation between faith and economics, faith and reconciliation (and violence), interfaith relations
Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is ...
, faith and politics (in particular, defense of democratic pluralism), and so on. Through this course and in his work with globalization more broadly, Volf is seeking to think through all these issues not from a generically human standpoint suspended above concrete traditions—which he believes does not exist—but from the perspective of the Christian faith.
In ''A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good'' (2011) Volf summed up his reflections over the years on how Christians should interact with the surrounding culture broadly conceived. He contends that with regard to the public realm Christians face two major dangers ("malfunctions of faith," in his terminology): one is to withdraw from public life and to leave their faith "idling" in all spheres outside their private and church lives; the other is to be engaged, but to do so in a coercive way, shoving the demands of their faith down the throats of those who embrace other faiths or no faith at all. Positively, Volf argues against two extremes: against a complete separation of faith from public life, a kind of secularist exclusion of religion from public realm (and sectarian self-isolation), and against a complete saturation of public life by one dominant religion, a kind of religious totalitarianism. Against both secular exclusivists and religious totalitarians he contends that, in a world in which many faiths often live under a common roof, freedom of religion and the Golden Rule should guide how faiths relate to each other in the public space. As to the Christians’ own engagement, Volf contends that there is no single Christian way to relate to the broader culture as a whole. Instead, while remaining true to the convictions of their own faith, Christians should approach their larger cultures in an ad-hoc way, accepting or partly changing some aspects of culture, possibly completely withdrawing from still others, and cheerfully celebrating many others.
Over the years, in diverse settings Volf has brought faith to bear on a variety of more public issues. Examples include the following: He was a member of the Global Agenda Council on Faith and on Values of the World Economic Forum (2009–2011); he worked with the Advisory Council of President Obama's Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships; he gave a keynote address at the International Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations (on 9/11) and spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast
The National Prayer Breakfast is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday in February. The founder of this event was Abraham Vereide. The event—which is actually a series of meetings, luncheons, and dinners—has ...
in Washington (2010); he delivered a keynote address at the international Military Chief of Chaplains conference in Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
(2008). He is also present in the media, giving interviews to major news organizations in this country (for instance, NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
) and abroad (for instance, Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
, HRT).
Yale Center for Faith and Culture
In 2003, Volf founded the Yale Center for Faith and Culture housed at Yale Divinity School. The goal of the center, which he still directs, is to promote the practice of faith in all spheres of life through theological research and leadership development. The goal corresponds to Volf's abiding interest in "theological ideas with legs". For the most part, various activities of the center, housed in discrete "programs" and "initiatives", have mirrored Volf's own long-standing theological interests ("God and Human Flourishing", "Ethics and Spirituality in the Workplace", "Reconciliation Program", "Adolescent Faith and Flourishing", "Faith and Globalization").
Honors, grants, and lectureships
Honors and grants
*Leopold Lukas Junior Scholar Award, University of Tübingen (1990)
*Alexander von Humboldt Stipend (1989–91, 1993)
*One of only five academic theologians named among the "50 Evangelical Leaders 40 and under," '' Christianity Today'' (1996)
*One of the 100 most influential books in 20th century for Exclusion and Embrace by '' Christianity Today''
*Pew Evangelical Research Fellowship (1998–99)
*Center of Theological Inquiry Fellow (1998–99)
*Grawemeyer Award
The Grawemeyer Awards () are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology. The religion awa ...
for Religion for ''Exclusion and Embrace'' (2002)
*Lilly Grant for Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, 2003–2007
Lectureships
*Waldenstroem Lectures, Stockholm School of Theology (1998)
*Laidlaw Lectures, Knox College, Toronto (1999)
*Gray Lectures, Duke University Divinity School (2001)
*Stob Lectures, Calvin College (2002)
*Robertson Lectures, Glasgow University (2003)
*Raynolds Lecture, Princeton University (2004)
*Dudleian Lecture, Harvard University Divinity School (2004)
*Stilman Lecture, Wake Forrest University (2005)
*Ryan Lectures, Asbury Theological Seminary (2005)
*Laingh Lectures, Regent College, Canada (2006)
*Ernest Lau Lectures, Trinity Theological College, Singapore (2008)
Personal life
Volf was previously married to New Testament scholar Judith Gundry; the marriage ended in divorce. He lives in Guilford, Connecticut, with his second wife, Jessica (married January 2012), his two sons, Nathanael and Aaron, and his daughter, Mira. He is a member of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.
Bibliography
Books
''Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
''Allah: A Christian Response''. New York: HarperOne, 2011.
::*Translations: Dutch
''A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good''. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011.
::*Translations: Korean, German and Chinese
::*Awards: One of the top 100 books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly and included in the Top 10 Religion Books; Nautilus Silver Award in the Religion and Spirituality – Western Traditions category 012 012 may refer to:
* Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car
* The dialing code for Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassie ...
ForeWord’s silver recipient in 'Religion' 012 012 may refer to:
* Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car
* The dialing code for Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassie ...
.
''Captive to the Word of God: Engaging the Scriptures for Contemporary Theological Reflection''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.
''Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Persisting Enmities.'' Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009.
''The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.
::*Translations: Portuguese, Dutch, and Chinese
::*Awards: Christianity Today Book Award in category "Culture" for 2007
''Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace.'' Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005
::*Translations: Dutch, German and Chinese
::*Awards: Archbishop of Canterbury 2006 Lent book
''After Our Likeness: The Church as an Image of the Triune God.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998. Translated from German, ''Trinität und Gemeinschaft: Eine Ökumenische Ekklesiologie'' (Mainz/Neukirchen-Vluyn: Grünewald Verlag/Neukirchener Verlag, 1996).
::*Other Translations: Croatian, Hungarian, Korean, and Russian.
''Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation.'' Nashville: Abingdon, 1996.
::*Translations: Croatian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Macedonian, Chinese, Russian, and Korean
::*Awards: Christianity Today Book Award for 1996; Christianity Today one of the 100 most influential books in 20th century; Grawemeyer Award for Religion, 2002
''Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1991 (reprinted by Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001).
::*Translations: Chinese
''Zukunft der Arbeit –Arbeit der Zukunft: Der Arbeitsbegriff bei Karl Marx und seine theologische Wertung.'' München/Mainz: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1988.
::*Translations: Croatian and Korean
''I Znam da sunce ne boji se tame: Teoloske meditacije o Santicevu vjerskom pjesnistvu.'' Osijek: Izvori, 1986.
Edited works
''Do We Worship the Same God?: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Dialogue.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.
With Ghazi bin Muhammad
Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad (born 15 October 1966) is a Jordanian prince and a professor of philosophy. He is the son of Prince Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan and his first wife, Princess Firyal. He is a grandson of King Talal of Jordan and thus ...
and Melissa Yarington, ''A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor.'' Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009.
With Michael Welker
Michael Welker (born 20 November 1947 in Erlangen, Germany) is a German Protestant theologian and a senior professor of Systematic Theology ( Dogmatics).
Biblical Theology and “general theory” are the main foci of his research. He reached a ...
, ''God’s Life in the Trinity.'' Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006.
With Michael Welker
Michael Welker (born 20 November 1947 in Erlangen, Germany) is a German Protestant theologian and a senior professor of Systematic Theology ( Dogmatics).
Biblical Theology and “general theory” are the main foci of his research. He reached a ...
, ''Der lebendinge Gott als Trinitaet.'' Jürgen Moltmann zum 80: Geburtstag. Guetersloh: Guetersloher Verlagshaus, 2006.
With William Katerberg, ''The Future of Hope: Christian Tradition amid Modernity and Postmodernity.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.
With Dorothy Bass, ''Practicing Theology. Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
''A Passion for God’s Reign: Theology, Christian Learning, and Christian Self.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998
With T. Kucharz and C. Krieg, ''The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jürgen Moltmann.'' Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996 (translated into German).
With Hermann Sautter, ''Gerechtigkeit, Geist und Schöpfung: Die Oxford‐Erklärung zur Frage von Glaude und Wirtschaft.'' Wuppertal: Brockhaus Verlag, 1992.
References
External links
Volf's Yale Divinity School faculty webpage
Yale Center for Faith and Culture webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volf, Miroslav
Croatian theologians
Croatian Anglicans
Yugoslav emigrants to the United States
1956 births
Living people
People from Osijek
Anglican theologians
Fuller Theological Seminary alumni
Fuller Theological Seminary faculty
University of Tübingen alumni
Yale University faculty
University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni