Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
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Challenging

Jamie

Exclusion and Embrace

The Cross, the Self, and the Other

Creative Differentiation vs. Sinful Exclusion

Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
Miroslav Volf
Manufacturer: Abingdon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0687002826

Book Description

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

Customer Reviews:

Challenging.......2007-05-15

It is very challenging to explore what forgiveness means in the light of the deep realities faced so honestly here.

Jamie.......2007-02-27

This book is a bunch of intellectual garbage. The author uses many big words and quotes prestigious thinkers, and yet doesn't actually say anything new or provacative. This book is definitely not worth reading.

Exclusion and Embrace.......2006-12-04

What a fantastic book Miroslav Volf wrote. This comes from his struggle to deal the effects of the war in his native land of Croatia. Prof Volf is right on when he makes the move to deal with ones willingness to embrace ones enemy just as God, in Christ, moved towards sinful humanity to embrace us. It can be somewhat of a difficult read, but it is worth it. I would recommend that every minister, theologian, and ministrial student read this book.

The Cross, the Self, and the Other.......2006-06-03

Miroslav Volf has written a somewhat complex piece that in the end advocates non-violence in a world of violence. He writes as one who has been in the war zone of the Balkans and come out the other side. This book is important for what it has to say about justice, but more importantly love. Volf has had to deal personally with Serbian fighters who raped, pillaged, put in concentration camps, and murdered his fellow Croatians and he comes down in the end on the side of taking up your cross and following Jesus. Lest one think that he is a weak pacifist, he does come down theologically on the side of a God who judges, if even by violent means, and he calls on us, who wish to appeal to the Christ of the cross for our actions, to trust in the wrath of the Lamb and the one who sits upon the throne.
He discusses what it means to set boundaries and yet embrace the other. Every chapter is important in this book. Vof comes down on the side of love even over justice and he sincerely believes that love is right and that violence is wrong.
This book has already had a major impact on many and hopefully this will continue. In a time when preachers on television are advocating war and violence it is important that somehow the real message of Christianity would come out. Volf, Desmond Tutu, Walter Wink, L. Gregory Jones, Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder, N. T. Wright and others are showing the real way for Christians to be in the world and so this work is greatly appreciated.

This is not an easy read, as some other reviewers have pointed out. Volf engages many dialogue partners and the issues are at times technical and deeply philosophical, but as the spotlight reviewer put it, it is worth working through this book.
Volf does give high priority to all of scripture and some of the best sections in the book are when he works through such the Cain and Abel story, the prodigal son, and the book of Revelation.

I recommend this book for all theologians, preachers, and very serious bible students. Those outside the discipline of theology will have a harder time with the technicalities of the book, but it is worth the struggle. I recommend this book along with Desmond Tutu's book "No Future Without Forgiveness" to all of those Christian Zionist preachers out there who are misguided by the god of War and need to return to the Jesus of the cross.

Questions or Comments Contact me at darrengjohnson38@yahoo.com

Creative Differentiation vs. Sinful Exclusion.......2006-05-07

As I read this book I was challenged to understand theological foundations and keys to understanding deeply rooted conflict among peoples around the world. That is why I recommend this book to you.

I have often pondered how we, the Christian Church, are to disciple nations. Some say it is done by winning a majority of souls in a nation, but the African nation of Malawi with 90% Christians is a dismal failure in terms justice, economic development, and overall of quality of life. Some say discipling a nation is all about quality of life and institutional reform, particularly reforms consistent with modern democracies.

What is Exlusion?

Exclusion is when we set ourselves apart from others for the purpose of defining our selves and justifying ourselves; we hope to purify ourselves. The difference between us has been healed when Jesus broke the wall of enmity. However, he did not erase the difference (p. 47). The need to restore "Identity" in individuals and whole cultures is a key message of this book. As Christians, we are called to depart from our culture and step into another. It is impossible to cross-cultures effectively if you do not know who you are. Volf encourages unity in diversity, "One body, many members" (p. 48), not a universal human identity. The bible says we are distinct in our diverse individualities and cultures. The cross of Christ is central. In the scandal of the cross, we find the promise of fellowship with the Crucified Christ. He explains that the core theme of the Gospels is "come and die". Our identity is "in His image".
However, this identity is not the end; it is a means to the end. Once crucified, we are called to engage the world that is broken. Therefore every social issue must be processed through reflection on the cross. (p. 25). Volf calls us to give up on modern hopes in order to see the only hope in self-giving love (p. 28). Volf defines "exclusion" as a powerful, contagious, and destructive evil.

What is Embrace?

"Embrace", he writes, is distancing ourselves from our own cultures to create space for the other (p. 30). We must both cultivate a distance from culture and at the same time belong to our culture (p. 37). "Solitarity", Volf writes, rightly underlines God's partiality to the `helpless'. However solidarity must include self-donation, self-giving. The story of the Good Samaritan illustrates the evil of exclusion in overt acts of violence as well as the non-actions of the disinterested. Truth and justice, Volf argues, are unavailable if we do not choose to embrace (p. 29). What is needed is "space" in our hearts to embrace our neighbors (p. 51). Other cultures are not a threat, but a potential source of enrichment. As we make some distance from our own culture, we actually express judgment against evil in every culture (p. 52).
Modernity will emphasize social arrangements, not social agents. Modernity shifts the "moral responsibility away from us individually and toward society. (p. 21). In ministering to the modernist and the postmodernist, we must insist upon trans-national, trans-ethnic, transcendental communities (p. 39). We must set our hearts on pilgrimage, from our own cultures and to the kingdom of God. Modern Christians tend to seek freedom, without the accompanied "binding" responsibility to a community (p. 42). We must depart our culture with a goal. To depart without a goal, like a nomad always leaving is post-modern. (p. 40) Postmodernity creates a climate in which evasion of moral responsibility is a way of life. Relationships have become "fragmentary" and "discontinuous". Our modern culture fosters "disengagement and commitment avoidance". (p. 21)

If what Volf says is true, then `calling' must remain the focus in my ministry. My ministry focus should, as Volf exhorts, "concentrate less on social arrangements and more on fostering the kind of social agents capable of envisioning and creating just, truthful, and peaceful societies, and on shaping a cultural climate in which such agents will thrive." (p. 21) What Volf makes clear is that exclusion is a sinful activity that ultimately reconfigures the creation in order to distinguish it from the creative activity of differentiation.

Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture

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never received it

Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture
Stuart Hirschberg , and Terry Hirschberg
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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With a thematic focus on global popular culture, this unique multi-genre reader offers students the opportunity to read, talk, and write about familiar topics of modern life.

Customer Reviews:

never received it.......2005-09-18

Ordered this book a few weeks ago. Never received it. Had to go purchase a new copy at much greater expense.

Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church

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Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church
John Zizioulas
Manufacturer: T. & T. Clark Publishers
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Strangers, Gods and Monsters: Ideas of Otherness

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Strangers, Gods and Monsters: Ideas of Otherness
Richard Kearney
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Paperback

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Strangers, Gods and Monster is a fascinating look at how human identity is shaped by three powerful but enigmatic forces. Often overlooked in accounts of how we think about ourselves and others, Richard Kearney skillfully shows, with the help of vivid examples and illustrations, how the human outlook on the world is formed by the mysterious triumvirate of strangers, gods and monsters.

Throughout, Richard Kearney shows how strangers, gods and monsters do not merely reside in myths or fantasies but constitute a central part of our cultural unconscious. Above all, he argues that until we understand better that the Other resides deep within ourselves, we can have little hope of understanding how our most basic fears and desires manifest themselves in the external world and how we can learn to live with them.

The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness

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Excellent, lively read!!!
A Social Metaphysics of Humans-in-Relation
Dogs and Humans: The New Pack

The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness
Donna J. Haraway
Manufacturer: Prickly Paradigm Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The Companion Species Manifesto is about the implosion of nature and culture in the joint lives of dogs and people, who are bonded in "significant otherness." In all their historical complexity, Donna Haraway tells us, dogs matter. They are not just surrogates for theory, she says; they are not here just to think with. Neither are they just an alibi for other themes; dogs are fleshly material-semiotic presences in the body of technoscience. They are here to live with. Partners in the crime of human evolution, they are in the garden from the get-go, wily as Coyote. This pamphlet is Haraway's answer to her own Cyborg Manifesto, where the slogan for living on the edge of global war has to be not just "cyborgs for earthly survival" but also, in a more doggish idiom, "shut up and train."

Customer Reviews:

Excellent, lively read!!!.......2007-01-04

This is a lovely, engaging short volume. It was just the right mix of theory and very pragmatic discussion to appeal to anyone from the reader who just plain loves dogs ... to those interested in better understanding contemporary scientific discourses.

Highly recommended.

A Social Metaphysics of Humans-in-Relation.......2006-11-07

The previous comment seems to me to miss the plot of Haraway's text. I don't mean to cause offense by saying this, but only to explain why I feel like I should write. The way I read this manifesto, Haraway is working to lay out a social metaphysics that takes relations with radical otherness as integral to and inseparable from any identity. Classical liberalist / modernist theory imagines humans as fundamentally discrete and fungible. This necessarily produces hostility to anything marked as other (e.g., women, dogs, nature, etc.). By drawing off her earlier cyborg theory, Whitehead's process metaphysics, and her own very intimate and concrete relationship with her beloved companion, Haraway is working to construct an intimate and concrete conceptual alternative. This is probably not a text that you would want to wander into without at least some previous (e.g., undergrad) introduction to 3rd wave feminist theory.

Dogs and Humans: The New Pack.......2006-01-22

The traditional contradictions found in relationships between human/nature, nature/machine, art/science, have no place in this work by Donna Haraway. In The Companion Species Manifesto (2003), Haraway spends a fair portion of the book in what seems to be a possible beginning of a future book; in honor of Foucault, she might name it "The Birth of the Kennel" (61). Haraway's distinctively postmodernist style gives voice to those groups who otherwise do not have any; she speaks mostly of dogs in the book but notes that the dog is really a metaphor, "Let the dog stand for all domestic plant and animal species, subjected to human intent in stories of escalating progress or destruction, according to taste" (28). The relationships between human and dog are seen as creating a new history, one that breaks down the traditionally bifurcated social construction among the species.
Humans more and more are defining themselves, their activity, and their lifestyle with dogs (companion species) in mind. This may be truer in Western cultures, but there is a curious "emergent natureculture" emanating in modern society, one that sees human-pet relations as central to one's being. Dogs are not only welcomed at some houses, they are expected, because they participate in the social structure we have created, a pack of humans and dogs with clearly delineated rules of social interaction and an equally clear, although often challenged hierarchy. The animals and humans interact within curious sets of relationships. Dogs and humans are certainly not the same species, no matter how large we define species as, but Haraway's attempt at deconstructing relationships and reconstructing them in terms of intra-specie relations is both creative and difficult to conjure. While this book was a good read, it seems incomplete at times and could use some further fleshing out of the logic and themes.

Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk

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Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk
Daniel S. Traber
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1403976147
Release Date: 2007-02-20

Book Description

Traber reexamines the practice of self-marginalization in Euro-American literature and popular culture that depict whites adopting varied markers of otherness to disengage from the dominant culture. He draws on critical theory, whiteness and cultural studies to counter an eager correlation between marginality and agency. The nonconformist cultural politics of these border crossings implode since the transgressive identity the protagonists desire relies upon, is built from, the center's values and definitions. An orthodox notion of individualism underpins each act of sovereignty as it rationalizes exploiting stereotypes of an Other constructed by the center. The work closes by positing a theory of identity based on Jean-Luc Nancy's concept of the emptied self. In recognizing the already mixed quality of being, identity is made a vacuous concept as the standards for determining self and difference become too slippery to hold.

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Thought-provoking material
Hot and Cold
Nice, not great.
Otherness is a Good Tittle
By Gosh, He's Done it Again!

Otherness
David Brin
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Book Description

From multiple award-winning author David Brin comes this extraordinary collection of tales and essays of the near and distant future, as humans and aliens encounter the secrets of the cosmos--and of their own existence. In "Dr. Pak's Preschool" a woman discovers that her baby has been called upon to work while still in the womb. In "NatuLife" a married couple finds their relationship threatened by the wonders of sex by simulation. In "Sshhh . . . " the arrival of benevolent aliens on Earth leads to frenzy, madness . . . and unimaginable joy. In "Bubbles" a sentient starcraft reaches the limits of the universe--and dares to go beyond. These are but a few of the challenging speculations in Otherness, from the pen of an author whose urgent and compelling imaginative fiction challenges us to wonder at the shape and the nature of the universe--as well as at its future.

Customer Reviews:

Thought-provoking material.......2007-08-12

Otherness is the uniting theme for the short stories and essays collected in this book. Don't let the silly cheap science fiction cover fool you: there's some pretty deep thought inside the covers. The short stories vary from great to ok, but the essays offer the best value in the collection. Brin writes about UFOs, science versus magic and what he calls the dogma of otherness. It's all very interesting and enlightening.

The short stories aren't a waste of space, either - the best of them are captivating and contain marvellous ideas. Brin writes good science fiction, especially if you value interesting ideas. Those looking for fresh thought to chew on will find a nice dose from this collection.

Hot and Cold.......2006-06-29

David Brin is certainly a talented author, but there are far too many preachy spots in this book for my taste. That he is a disciple of Richard Dawkins was evident from a line in "The Giving Plague" taken directly from the title of Dawkins' book, "The Selfish Gene". He makes it obvious by the final essay.

He also appears to like the surprise twist at the end of the story as several of these short stories have them. The end of "Dr. Pak's Preschool" seemed to me to be a bit contrived, as did the end of the (much better) "The Warm Space", but "Piecework" was such a fabulous, delightful story that I read it several times over even before I went on to finish the book. "NatuLife" was also a fabulous story with many layers of meaning and significance. A fascinating premise that first appears in "Ambiguity" takes a decidedly preachy turn in "What Continues...and What Fails...", a story that crystalizes the author's (and Dawkins') views on evolution.

When it comes to the essays, "The Dogma of Otherness" is both clever and interesting. Brin's sense of humor comes through quite well. Starting with "Whose Millenium" the essays get preachy though, and the mask came off in the final one which was both predictable and boring for anyone who has taken part in internet debates on evolution or religion.

I own this book, having picked it up when the local library discarded it to make room for others. Most of the stories are definitely worth reading, but it isn't likely to find a permanent spot on my shelves either.

Nice, not great........2005-06-25

Overall, I give the book four stars. Here's a brief summary of its contents, with each story/essay independently rated. From * "I did not like it at all" to ***** "I loved it". I was expecting something like Kiln People.

The Giving Plague: A scientist tries to avoid catching a plague in which discovery he took part. ***

Myth Number 21: A super short story. To say more would spoil it. *

Dr. Pak's Preschool: Early stimulation on babies is taken to the extreme. ****

Detritus Affected: Some archaeologists in the near future make grim discoveries at a site. ***

The Dogma of Otherness: An essay about the newness of caring for other. **

Sshhh...: Humanity looks for its secret unique talent in the Universe. *****

Those Eyes: A radio talk show profoundly affect a UFO crew. ****

What to Say to a UFO: An essay about how the story came to be. ***

Bonding to Genji: Introduction to the world of Genji. *****

The Warm Space: In the future, natural humans will be left out of the space race from robo humans, so a man makes a choice to be remembered. ***** The best of the book.

Whose Millennium? An essay on Y2K and its relative irrelevance from a millennial standpoint. It was a good one before y2k. **

NatuLife: A city dweller and his ancient virtual world. ***

Piecework: Using natural resources for production. *****

Science versus Magic: An essay comparing Science and Magic. **

Bubbles: One stranded spaceship makes an astounding discovery. ****

Ambiguity: An scholar discovers he's done more than he thought he would. **

What Continues... and What Fails... Evolution on a universal scale. *****

The Commonwealth of Wonder: An essay talking about ideas that spread and other topics. **

Otherness is a Good Tittle.......2003-11-19

This book was great. I had to read it for a project in Chemistry. I loved the colection of stories in it. My favorite was The Giving Plague. I want ot deal with things like this in the future and I liked the story line. I also liked Dr. Pek's Preschool. I like how it brought every one to this place to have their children used to help man kind. I have always thought that the fetus is the best time to ask questions. They have no preconceptions of anything and David Brin sees that too. This is an excelent book and I would/have recomended it to others. For I am a nerd and I know this but this book would interest anyone.

By Gosh, He's Done it Again!.......2000-08-07

While sifting through the rows of paperbacks on my dusty bookshelf, I came across Otherness. It had been given to me for one of my birthday's a few years ago, but I'd never read it. Too busy to venture into a new author, I had stuck it on my shelf. However, one day, looking for something to read, I found this book, and on a whim, picked it up and started it. And boy was I entranced! From the first few stories I was hooked. Later, however, my entusiasum died down I and puttered through, to be picked up again at the end. It was a great book. Full of insightful thought provoking observations or statements that really make you ask yourself, "What if that was true?". Purely, one of the best short story coladborations I have read. I'd reccomend it to anyone with a mind that thinks out of the box. Thought it was a little slow in the middle, one is rewarded at the end. I give it five stars for its in-depth thinking, and especially the putting of American views into a Dogma, the Dogma of Otherness. Excellent! Wonderful! A+. By Gosh, he's done it again!

Essays on Otherness (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy)

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Essays on Otherness (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy)
Jean Laplanche
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415131081

Book Description

i Essays on Otherness /i presents, for the first time in English, a key selection of the work of Jean Laplanche, one of the most important contemporary theorists of psychoanalysis whose work also has crucial implications for post-structuralist thought. br Since Freud's newly controversial abandonment of his seduction theory in 1897, psychoanalysis has given priority to the innate developmental program of the individual over the intersubjective relation to the other person. i Essays on Otherness /i shows how Laplanche has returned to and reformulated Freud's abandoned seduction theory as a new theory of primal seduction, intrinsic to the everyday relations of childcare and nurturing. It is through this theory of primal seduction and the original relation to the other, that Laplanche sets a new foundation for psychoanalysis radically centered on the other.

Cultural Encounters: Representing Otherness (Sussex Studies in Culture and Communication)

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Cultural Encounters: Representing Otherness (Sussex Studies in Culture and Communication)
E. Hallam
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Media and Globalization

ASIN: 0415202809

Book Description

Cultural Encounters examines a diverse range of media and art forms, from film to advertisements, photography to poetry, in an attempt to explore the cultural politics of Europe's encounters with Brazil, India, Australia and Africa. The book offers news ways of understanding the encounters between members of different cultural groups by analyzing the diversity of ways in which 'otherness' has been constituted and transformed in contemporary and historical contexts. The authors begin by examining how cultural and historical unity and difference are represented in the art forms of the countries, and also look at the European penchant for creating an 'other' from these depictions. Hallam and Street then explore the social, cultural and political ramifications involved in the display of cultural artwork, and the power that the museum holds in determining markers of 'otherness' by privileging certain forms of information and neglecting others. The book looks at key areas of debate in terms of race and gender, power and prestige in the world of cultural art.

Art & Otherness: Crisis in Cultural Identity

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Art & Otherness: Crisis in Cultural Identity
Thomas McEvilley
Manufacturer: McPherson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0929701488

Book Description

Directly following the internationally acclaimed Art & Discontent, Thomas McEvilley argues in Art & Otherness for an advanced anthropological perspective that contravenes conventional thinking in the visual arts, and leads to a concept of artistic globalization. The description of western culture as superior and in opposition to other cultures of the world preoccupied our aesthetic philosophy for at least 200 years, whether or not explicitly stated. That argument was undertaken in various guises, especially as the historical determinism of Hegel which proposed to quantify human "progress." Recently, however, the term "multiculturalism" has come to signify a post-Modern understanding of how visual arts transgress artificial boundaries, and of how there may now exist, perhaps for the first time in history, a post-colonial globalism in the arts freed of ethnocentric value judgments. In these ten crucial essays, McEvilley clarifies how the presentation of art can determine its reception, how "influence" can be bi-directional, how "otherness" serves to define "self," and how art need not necessarily lose its meaningfulness when stripped of badges of universality. Once again illustrating his argument by drawing upon an array of sources and cultures, Thomas McEvilley demonstrates that the post-Modern crisis in cultural identity demands an imaginative, integrating response.

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