Miroslav Volf Quotes

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

Miroslav Volf

Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community ofhumans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners. But no onecan be in the presence of the God of the crucified Messiah for long withoutovercoming this double exclusion — without transposing the enemy from thesphere of the monstrous… into the sphere of shared humanity and herself fromthe sphere of proud innocence into the sphere of common sinfulness. Whenone knows [as the cross demonstrates] that the torturer will not eternallytriumph over the victim, one is free to rediscover that person’s humanity andimitate God’s love for him. And when one knows [as the cross demonstrates]that God’s love is greater than all sin, one is free to see oneself in the light ofGod’s justice and so rediscover one’s own sinfulness.

Miroslav Volf