A Public Faith, How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good

by Miroslav Volf

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good. Now in paperback.

Praise for the cloth edition

Named one of the "Top 100 Books" and one of the "Top 10 Religion Books" of 2011 by Publishers Weekly

"Accessible, wise guidance for people of all faiths."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Highly original. . . . The book deserves a wide audience and is one that will affect its readers well after they have turned the final page."--Christianity Today (5-star review)

Genres: Theology, Religion, Politics, Nonfiction, Christianity, Faith, Christian

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. “One of the most celebrated theologians of our time,” (Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury), Volf is a leading expert on religion and conflict. His recent books include Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Persisting Enmities, and Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation—winner of the 2002 Grawmeyer Award in Religion.

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Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miroslav Volf believes it is possible to be unapologetically Christian, or otherwise religious, in a pluralistic world without resorting to violence or, alternatively, isolating yourself into a cultural ghetto. He argues that Christians can choose a third way of seeking the public good while remaining faithful to the core values of their faith--the dignity of humans in the image of God, the servant way of Christ, the care of creation. Along the way, Volf also discusses why believing people have often chosen the extremes rather than this third way.

What I particularly appreciate is that he does not believe that Christians need to mute their message to do so. Rather, he frames this as the sharing of wisdom and proposes that this may be done without imposing on others when we speak as witnesses and not tyrants, when we give freely rather than "selling", as we embody rather than abstractly teach, and as we point to Christ and not some wisdom within either ourselves or the other.

He concludes with four propositions that he believe support religious pluralism in the public square:

1. Treating all as equals because all are related to the one God (not sure how this works for polytheists or atheists)
2. Practicing a Golden Rule ethic of love for neighbor.
3. Claiming no right for ourselves we do not grant to others.
4. Renouncing all coercion of religion.

While all of these are propositions that seem to flow from Christian belief, the question remains of whether Christians will embrace these and others agree as well. Personally, I believe we should as Christians, whether this results in being taken advantage of or not. And in a relatively short book, I think he has laid out a basic framework that could shape a constructive engagement of Christians in public life.

[Dayo Adewoye · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a globalized world where traditional geographical and cultural boundaries are being broken down and people and ideas freely travel across the globe, how can the collision of faiths be kept peaceful? How can society eliminate the threat of imposition (i.e., that the principles of a particular faith would not be foisted on the rest, as the agenda of radical Islamists is)? Specifically, how should the Christian community respond to this trend?

This is what this book seeks to address. It is written by Miroslav Volf, the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale University, and Founding Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture.

He advocates a project of political pluralism. This is proposed as an alternative to both religious totalitarianism (such as we find in the rise of militant or radical Islam that has emerged in recent years) and a secularism that disallows all religious views from public discussions and interactions (the dominant outlook in the Western world since the Enlightenment). He suggests that our response as the Church would involve embracing and living out the following points:

• Christ is God's word who has come into the world for the good of all peoples. Our faith is therefore a 'prophetic' faith that seeks to mend the world. When it fails to do this, it malfunctions.
• Christ came to redeem the world through his death. His instrument was preaching, not coercion. When a faith resorts to coercion, it also malfunctions.
• To follow Christ in the world is to care for others and work towards their flourishing. Dr Volf states here that, "a vision of human flourishing and the common good is the main thing that the Christian faith brings into the public debate."
• Since the world is God's creation, we cannot adopt a hostile stance towards it. We must adopt a pattern of appropriating what is true and rejecting what is false within it.
• We are called to be witnesses to Christ. This is how we are to help society flourish.
• No single political arrangement is legitimized by Christ; various forms are compatible with the Christian faith. However, we should, after the instruction of Christ, do to others as we desire from them by granting them the same freedoms we claim for ourselves.

This proposal is essential because our beliefs must be active in society without being oppressive. When we fail to do this, our faith malfunctions, either by being idle or by being coercive.

Idleness

Faith is made idle when it is emptied of its power to define one's purpose and provide direction for life. We can fall into this error when we pick and choose elements of the faith that soothe or please us, while abandoning the rest. We can also make our faith idle by submitting to the established systems that govern various aspects of our lives such as work or education, rather than following the demands of our faith concerning those areas. Thirdly, faith can be made idle when we fail to apply it to contemporary challenges and situations. When this happens, the character of that faith is distorted. An important area in which this idleness of faith has severe consequences is in our work. Faith provides direction and guidance for our lives. But where our work is disconnected from that faith, it becomes distorted and is eventually turned into an idol. As the author notes on page 34, 'Our work can find its ultimate meaning when, in working for ourselves and for community, we work for God.'

Coercion
A second way that faith malfunctions is when adherents impose that faith oppressively on others. Many religions have at one time or the other been guilty of coercion. However, the author believes it is not an inherent aspect of any major religion, particularly the Christian faith. Our faith calls us to save the world by bearing witness to Christ, the Redeemer. When violence is adopted, faith malfunctions.

Miroslav repeatedly (and rightly!) debunks the notion that religious views are an add-on to a person's basic self-awareness and so can be discarded at will in order to live with others on 'secular' grounds. Religion gives one an identity, and cannot be removed as one undresses at night.

'When religion leaves the public square - or is driven from it - the public square doesn't remain empty. Instead, it becomes filled with a diffuse phenomenon called secularism.'

When the Christian faith is properly embraced, it leads to true human flourishing. Over the years, a different view of human flourishing - a search for personal experiential satisfaction - has become prominent. But he show how deeply flawed this view is as he leads us to see that humans flourish only when their lives are in harmony with God:

'... human beings flourish and are truly happy when they center their lives on God, the source of everything that is true, good and beautiful.' (p.58)

I personally found his discussion of human flourishing very enlightening. And It is rather surprising that even though I believe God has called me to help humanity flourish through my teaching, I have never seriously considered what exactly it means for humanity to flourish. That was until I read this book. He clearly helps us see that the pursuit of personal satisfaction and pleasure is a dead end.

We lead our lives well when we love God with our whole being and when we love our neighbors as we (properly) love ourselves. (p.72)

In this task of seeking human flourishing, we interact with other faiths. And 'a central challenge for all religions in a pluralistic world is to help people grow out of their petty hopes so as to live meaningful lives, and to help them resolve their grand conflicts and live in communion with others.' (p. 100) Given this understanding, it becomes necessary for religious people to share wisdom among one another. For the Christian, this is the task of bearing witness to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God. And he concludes by urging all faith traditions to commune together, sharing wisdom from their sacred texts, as they seek truth and mutual understanding.

Observation
This is an excellent book that will help believers to think deeply about how our faith applies to public culture. One the one hand, we have to recover a vibrant, thick and robust faith that will be humbly but creatively lived out in the daily world. On the other hand, we share our wisdom with the rest of the world without imposing 'truth' on them. Our tool, as witness bearers, is persuasion.

However, I search in vain for a hint that the world might not continue to exist as a multitude of faiths. I find no hope of the worldwide triumph of the gospel, such that the knowledge of Christ shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. He does not consider that the project of political pluralism might only be temporary. This is not unique to the author; I think it is a weakness of the larger body of Christ today. While this does not detract from the usefulness of the book, the hope should be kept alive so it can motivate believers to greater faithfulness. The Bible leads us to expect the onward spread of the gospel across the nations (Zech. 9:10; Acts 13:47; 15:16-17; Isa. 2:2; Joel 2:28; Psalm 2:8). God is at work in his world, drawing all men to himself. We do not need to believe that the current global state of affairs will continue indefinitely. God's word leads us to look for a time when our whole world would have embraced the truth of the gospel.

No religion, including Christianity, is content with being just one among many. Every religion is exclusive: it regards itself as the truth. All other religions are false, even though they may contain bits and strands of truth. While they may accept political pluralism as a means of coexisting in a globalized world, each seeks global dominance. None will stop until it can get the entire world to come under its tabernacle. This has also been the vision of the Church for centuries. The challenge for the Church (and for all other religions) is not to seek this reality through Coercion, but through Persuasion. From a Christian perspective, every other religion is a distortion of God's revealed truth in nature. While we would respect and love their adherents as fellow creatures of God, we must not fail to see that the existence of other religions is a spiritual blindness which God is wiping out through the gospel.

In all, this is an amazing book and it deserves to be read by every Christian as we seek to live faithfully in these challenging times.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miroslav Volf's "A Public Faith" is an excellent declaration of how Christians can engage with the rest of society in an increasingly pluralistic world. Volf discusses many of the contentions people have with religion such as the tragic history of religious violence that has left millions dead. In answer to this, Volf suggests that "more religion" is needed in order to guard against "malfunctions" of religion (e.g. some will use only certain tenets to support their aggression without also holding to tenets that speak of peace and harmony). Volf also makes a good case for religion to be allowed in the public square BECAUSE liberal democracies claim to want to have every voice heard. He suggests imparting "wisdom" (embodied in Jesus Christ, the Word) and giving gifts as ways for Christians to engage with non-Christians, while also recognizing that non-Christians may have wisdom to offer as well. The one qualm about this book is that it is very theoretical and lacking in practical examples. Perhaps Volf could have explored how religion played a role in Rev. King's civil rights movement. All in all though, a good read, one that reminds me of John G. Stackhouse's "Making The Best Of It" (I read Stackhouse's book first and gave it 5/5; because the two books share similarities, much of what I heard from Volf did not seem new, hence, the 4/5 instead of 5/5 rating).

[Simon Wiebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volf bringt als Vertreter der „Öffentlichen Theologie“ spannende Impulse für das Christentum in der Gesellschaft. Zwei Extreme vermeidet er: Die Verlagerung des Glaubens auf das Private. Das Überstülpen des eigenen Glaubens. Zuerst nennt er einige Fehlfunktionen des Glaubens, die behoben werden müssen. Danach geht er darauf ein, wie engagierter Glaube in der Gesellschaft aussieht. An manchen Stellen schwieriger zu lesen, aber dennoch spannende Impulse.

[Allan Bevere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything Miroslav Volf writes, I read. Though "A Public Faith" was written over a decade ago, it remains an important account of how Christians can seek the common good in a pluralistic context.

[Mathias Holk Stoltenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forholdet mellem politik og religion, stat og kirke, er et sprængfarligt spændingsfelt. Indenfor politologien har den politiske liberalisme mere eller mindre hersket, siden den blev formuleret af John Rawls; at religiøse argumenter ikke hører til i den offentlige samtale, som skal være præget af sekulære argumenter alle potentielt ville kunne være enige i. Omvendt har man i den vestlige kirke set, at kristendommens indhold udvaskes i et forsøg på kulturel tilpasning, eller at kristendommens indhold forstærkes, men på en nærmest krigerisk, "civilisationernes kamp"-agtig facon i et forsøg på enten at "genkristne Vesten" eller trække sig tilbage fra den "ugudelige" kultur. Det er i disse (lidt forsimplede) tendenser, at Miroslav Volf har skrevet "En offentlig tro", hvori han både henvender sig til det samfundsfaglige aspekt af at inkludere religion i den offentlige samtale, men i særdeleshed henvender sig til de kristne i et argument om, at tage positiv del i kulturen og derfra yde indflydelse indefra. Ikke noget lille bogprojekt han har haft for øje.

Grundlæggende er bogen velskrevet og velargumenteret. Volf er yderst belæst og når bredt omkring i teologien, sociologien og filosofien, det er fedt! Han skriver op imod rigtig mange ting. Både den selvhjælpsagtige "fremgangsteologi", der udvander troens indhold, men også den fundamentalistiske bibelbælte-teologi, der skelner alt for groft mellem den kristne kultur og den verdslige kultur. Han skriver med andre ord, hans egne faktisk, op imod hhv. en doven tro, der ikke lader Gud være Gud i alle livets sfærer, men også en tvingende tro, som har mistet forståelsen af at tro kun kan modtages som en gave og aldrig tvinges. Derfor er løsningen inkulturation, hvor den kristne tro udtrykkes på den givne kulturs præmisser, så den kan slå rod i denne kultur: "At blive kristen er ensbetydende med, at man afviger fra kulturen uden at forlade den. At leve som kristen betyder, at man hele tiden tilføjer noget anderledes til en given kultur uden nogensinde at træde uden for denne kultur". Løsningen (eller strategien) er altså, at de kristne til dels skal tilpasse sig kulturen og til dels skal være anderledes, men med et positivt/kreativt syn på den skabte verden. Denne mere positive vinkel på den skabte verden er jeg i tvivl om personligt, fordi syndefaldets konsekvenser så nemt nedtones, hvilket gør evangeliets budskab forvirrende. Omvendt virker det heller ikke konstruktivt, at trække sig totalt ud af kulturen og denne verden, da Gud jo skabte verden og erklærede den for god. Men dette må jeg nok lade teologer om - jeg synes det er vanskeligt at finde mit ståsted i.

Volfs vision for samfundet er pluralisme. Det er altså ikke den politisk-liberale vision om adskillelse af politik og religion. Argumentet mod politisk liberalisme (PL) fra Volf er eksklusionsindvendingen, som grundlæggende siger, at PL ekskluderer religiøse borgere fra den politiske samtale, fordi de skal opfinde sekulære argumenter for deres dybtfølte religiøse overbevisninger, mens det samme ikke er tilfældet for sekulære borgere. Det er med andre ord en favorisering af sekularisme. Dette argument er jeg meget enig i. Hvordan pluralismen konkret skal udmønte sig kommer han ikke så dybt ind på, hvilket vidner om at hans fokus mestendels er på de kristnes opgave. Jeg synes dog, at han skulle have ofret lidt flere sider på denne diskussion, da der er mange indvendinger (også til eksklusionsindvendingen) som ikke bliver berørt.

Det, som de kristne kan tilbyde kulturen, er mere end blot erfaringsmæssig tilfredsstillelse, som er dominerende i Vesten i dag. En form for tilfredsstillelse uden en meningsstruktur, som dermed fundamentalt er utilfredsstillende. De kristne skal sætte barren højere end dette (særlig kritik til fremgangsteologer her), fordi vi kan videreformidle en vision om menneskelig trivsel: at kende kilden til al menneskelig glæde, længsel og tilfredsstillelse. Denne opfordring fra Volf gør, at hans argument står solidt på evangelisk sandhed og ikke kun omhandler dennesidighed. Det er betryggende, og gør bogen anbefalelsesværdig.

[Mark Durrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer on religious pluralism for the common good.

Volf speaks of the common goal of religious pluralism as pertaining towards a human flourishing - such flourishing based on the Golden Rule.

[Mu-tien Chiou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volf dissects the dysfunctions of faith in its public application by its problematics in the ascension on the one hand and of return on the other.

Ascent malfunction can be easily understood as the lack of real connection with God (yet the believer or the church leader pretend to have done so). But Volf is ambivalent about the deeper causes of what he calls the “functional reduction [of the divine]” in this situation (he did allude to a lack of faith, misappropriated religious symbols, and even though not frequently, intentional deception and idolatrous deviation before God).

And while functional ascension could result in good mystics and bad “prophets” (hermits who know not and take no interest in bringing the transformative faith to the full dimension of the creation and the civilization), the returning malfunction is an ascent malfunction in most cases.

Here Volf identifies “the idleness of faith” on the one hand, and “the coerciveness of faith” on the other. Painting with a broad stroke, by idleness he means the deficiency of faith vis-à-vis the coerciveness of the degenerative worldly culture, and by coerciveness he means the surplus of [misconstrued] faith vis-à-vis the brokenness of the worldly culture.
I feel the categories in Volf’s dialectics here not that useful so that I am going to rework it according to my own conceptual framework.

A good public theology addresses the four types of imbalances:
1) The cause we support in the public is a common good (e.g., the abolition of capital punishment and of abortion), but the means to reason and push it becomes a display of our self-justifying tendency and populist violence, so there is an imbalance between respecting love and righteousness in the Christian discourse.
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2) The cause we support in the public is NOT a common good (e.g., the abolition of pagan shrines, mosques, and ancestor tombs), and the means to reason and push for it becomes a display of our foolish zeal (we hate what God hates: that people worship false gods) and even Zionism/dominion theology, so that there is an imbalance between theological prudence and religious zealousness.

3) We do not have a cause to support in the public, because our faith as we understand it seems irrelevant to the public live in, so that there is an imbalance between the interpretive efforts of renewal put in the public relevance of our age-worn theology and that of our modern ethos.

4) Whether the cause we support in the public is a common good or not, the imbalance between the influence our character of faith exerts on the culture and the influence the culture exerts on our character of faith.

The Chinese-speaking world is one where role models of good public faith have not yet been established. This means we will have a chance to learn from the western experience in terms of both the rise and demise of public faith and seek for new ways of collaboration and innovation in the production of nourishing soils for healthy Christian faith.


updates:
Lenn E. Goodman (Vanderbilt University) points out Volf's inadequate engagement, in this book of course, with John Rawls' objection of religious counsels entering public square, with engaging the strident atheists (Dennett, Dawkins, Hitchens, and Grayling, etc) who do not buy in the moral appeals or the idea of prayer.

It is commonly agreed that many of today's more burning issues are what we call the "embodied evils" of systematic powers, thus Goodman is fair to say that (since being a "good man" is not enough) a generic call for a good public faith in this book is no substitute for "down and dirty" engagements with them.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miroslav Volf's latest book A Public Faith is a necessary read for Christians wishing to be present in public. Volf speaks to Christians, encouraging them to be present in public, serving the common good. There are, he says two poles to avoid, a private, idling faith, that is focused on what happens inside the person or the religious edifice, and one that is coercive -- seeking to impose its vision on the broader public. As to the latter he uses the figure of Sayyid Gutb, whose philosophy undergirds the Al Qaeda type of engagement, what he calls religious totalitarianism. In its place he suggests that we embrace the benefits of political pluralism without capitulating to the premise that is prominent in many proposals of religious pluralism that there is a common core and we should focus it and ignore our differences. Such an ideal isn't realistic, and so we must find common cause not on the basis of sameness but in our respect for each other in our differences.

It's an intriguing book that should have far reaching influence. As good as Allah is, this is, in my mind better.

Take and read!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful look at ways in which faith should and can serve the world around us. Much of this was covered in Volf's other books, especially "Flourishing" and "Allah". I found the first three chapters, lectures given at Regent College, perhaps the most helpful. Volf explains there how faith often malfunctions. We ascend to an encounter with God, but instead of descending to take that encounter to the world and living a prophetic faith, we instead keep it to ourselves and retreat into personal mysticism or we co-opt our encounter with God to our own agenda. I also find his way of expressing the concept of "flourishing" helpful. In the modern West we tend to think of flourishing in terms of having our wants and desires met, but Volf exposes the shallowness of this. Flourishing takes place when our faith drives us to truly love God and to love our neighbour.

[Russrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful account of how Christian faith can find authentic expression in our multicultural world.

[Hudson Tucker · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Public Faith by Miroslav Volf offers a thought-provoking exploration of how Christians can navigate their faith in the public sphere, particularly in a pluralistic society. Volf argues for a balanced approach to political engagement, avoiding both coercion and withdrawal while actively contributing to the common good through religious political pluralism. While Volf’s argument around human flourishing may be inconsistent in its application, his broader message remains clear: Christians are called to engage the world with love, respect, and a commitment to justice. This approach, rooted in humility and collaboration, is essential for the church’s mission in today’s diverse and complex society.
An expansion on the inconsistencies-
Volf argues that Christians should be concerned mainly with the human flourishing of all people when it comes to living well in the world today and defines human flourishing as “the love of God and of neighbor” (Volf 75). While Volf’s definition of human flourishing is sound, I believe that Volf is inconsistent with his use of this term. He later claims that loving one’s neighbor is the central command of God, therefore saying that human flourishing is not in loving God and neighbor, but only in loving neighbor (Volf 117). His argument itself also seems to depend heavily on the golden rule, a premise he states that if one believes, one has good reason to support pluralism. The problem with this is that loving one’s neighbor is not the central command of any of the Abrahamic religions as Volf claims. Within Christianity, if loving God comes before loving one’s neighbor, surely loving God with all one’s heart, soul, strength, and mind would supersede a command to love one’s neighbor. This reasoning also applies to Judaism through the Shema in Deuteronomy 6. The core command of Islam is belief in the oneness of God and submission to his will. While treating others as one would want to be treated is considered important in each of these religions, it is not the central command of any of them. If loving one’s neighbor was the central command then there would be much less divisiveness between religions. The tension between religions comes not from differences in loving one’s neighbor but from differing interpretations of how to love and submit to God. While this flaw weakens Volf’s argument, it does not detract from his conclusion that Christians have a responsibility to shape the world for the kingdom of God while being respectful of other religions and cultures.

[Scott Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our Sunday School class chose this book to discuss over the summer, and I led discussions. I found the discussion guide and videos from the Yale Center for Faith & Culture helpful. We discussed the topic of religion in the public square shortly after the 2024 US election, which made moderating conversation challenging. Christian nationalism is ascendant today, a phenomenon only alluded to in Volf's book. In his era, Muslim nationalism was the main threat, but in the following 15 years, Christian nationalism has dominated the news in America. I'd like to hear a follow-up from Volf about this book's theses in light of this recent phenomenon. It has been present in American politics for some time, but its dominance is fairly new. Leading discussion among different opinions about Christian nationalists was indeed difficult.

Readers should be aware of Volf's background in the Balkan peninsula, former Yugoslavia. He witnessed religious nationalism go amuck by killing others in a genocide. Surely, this is an abuse of monotheistic religion! Coming from a philosophy background, Volf seeks to reason out how monotheistic religions can disagree without following the totalitarian pattern. He also seeks to understand how democracy - the will of the people - can coexist with religions claiming the exclusive understanding of God. His arguments are sound, but the popular will in America hasn't adopted his perspective, sadly.

This book is a good treatment of a difficult issue. As he suggests early on, readers should prepare to be uncomfortable. Will American Christians be willing to accept not getting their way all the time? That's a question we deal with in 2024, and I'm not sure how it will resolve. I hope Volf's insights get a better hearing, but it's hard to be confident in the triumph of philosophy against today's raw, oppressive power. I'm grateful to have undergone a deep dive in this topic despite all the discomforts it unearthed.

[Jason Keel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miroslav Volf set himself a daunting task with this book: to counter the assertion that religion should be left at the door when entering the public arena while acknowledging the failures of religious people throughout history and today to work for human flourishing without resorting to tyranny, and suggesting a viable way forward. Well, he more or less did it. I found A Public Faith to be not only thoughtful, but practical. He could not be as thorough as some will, not doubt, want, but this volume engages numerous ideas and critiques head on and comes out with great steps forward in finding a way for those who take their faith seriously to engage in the public square. A must read for all Christians, or anyone, in finding a way forward for people who take their worldview seriously while trying to find a way to flourish together.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intellectual Discussion of Faith and Public Life

This is a mix of profound passages and basic points. It took me a long time to finish because I’d hit a slow section and leave the book for a while. But I’m glad I finally finished.

He shares that healthy faith is both experiential and prophetic. It’s both about my personal transformation and my public engagement. When you try to make your faith all about one without the other you end up with an unhealthy and inaccurate faith.

Also, he refuted point by point thought leaders (Christian and Islamic) who claimed that belief in God requires a state religion. High engagement without trying to force faith.

Finally, he busts the myth that following God requires a single culture. God set boundaries but didnt regulate everything. He left a lot of room for creativity in how we follow Him.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ OCT 2021

First Volf work for me, but so many good nuggets in this one.

"The way Christians work toward human flourishing is not by imposing on others their vision of human flourishing and the common good but by bearing witness to Christ, who embodies the good life." (p.g xvi).

"[H]ermeneutical exchanges of gifts will help people of faith to better understand their own and others' sacred texts, to see each other as companions rather than combatants in the struggle for truth, to better respect each other's humanness, and to practice beneficence toward one another." (pg. 136).

"Christianity is not a 'culture' or a 'civilization'; it is a way of living centered on Christ in many diverse cultures and civilizations." (pg. 144).

[Allison Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely thought provoking. How does christianity effect us as citizens in thought and deed. We have to really think through the ramifications of faithful living in our world. Excellently written, Volf lays out the arguments from schools of thought, past and present that caused me to examine how my theology and citizenship interact. We are neither to be totalitarian in politics because of faith nor are we to be pluralistic because of our politics.... instead we are to be genuine lovers of God letting that wisdom and Truth of God flow through us to effect our actions as citizens.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miroslav Volf presents a remarkably helpful summary of how faith can be generously active in our present public life. I especially appreciated how he named faith as exemplifying human flourishing in ways that deepen the secular project begun 500 years ago (cf. Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age”). His closing arguments for how our diverse faiths (focused on Judaism, Christianity and Islam) can find overlap without losing their necessary, distinctive nature was most helpful. I have a new appreciation for Dr. Volf having read this slim volume.

[Paulo Freitas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miroslav apresenta uma obra bem construída sobre a importância da manifestação da fé cristã de maneira pública, mas sem intransigir o respeito às demais fés que coexistem nesse mundo. A fé cristã não precisa concordar com as demais, ainda assim tem o dever de pregar a Palavra de Deus, porém, sem imposições políticas, por exemplo. Ele traça um paralelo entre a fé cristã e as duas demais religiões monoteístas, Judaísmo e Islamismo. Também deixa claro que muitas vezes o cristianismo ultrapassou a linha do respeito e causou muito mal à humanidade tentando se impor como obrigatória.

[Laura S · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something about how Miroslav Volf communicates his thoughts that draws me. In this book, Volf barely touches on his grief concerning the Balkanizing of his homeland, Yugoslavia, yet, the echoes of it are still present. I have read books by other theologians who present similar thoughts on the Christian response to religious pluralism from an “armchair perspective,” but Volf’s personal experiences have created in him a sensitivity and awareness they do not possess. In my opinion, this has shaped him into becoming a theologian who taps into the artistic..

As much as I praise his work, other books I have read by him, so far, have had a greater impact on me.

[Jacob Hudgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volf is very bright and he has some excellent thoughts on why religion, when well-practiced, has a positive impact on society. But the book suffered from a lack of clear thesis…or more precisely, a simplistic and lightly proven thesis. He believes religion functions best in a pluralistic society. So Christians should live their faith in the public square (part 1) and that is best achieved in pluralism (part 2). That’s fine; I just found it a bit underwhelming.

[Rafael Sales · Rating 2 out of 5]

Esperava muito mais do livro. O autor levanta ótimas questões e reflexões sobre a relação fé e vida pública dentro do cristianismo e mesmo tentando criar uma visão apenas cristã, ele desenvolve toda a sua visão fundamentada na comparação que ele faz com um muçulmano radical.

[Michael Hillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard work. Says some good stuff about how we should, as people of faith, make a difference "for the common good" in our culture, society and politics, but very theoretical and academic. Short on practical examples.

[Victoria Hoppes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good content, but very academic. If you're into that kind of thing it is a great read, but if not, it may not be as accessible for you. I read this with a discussion group which helped. On my own it was rough at times.

[Laura Kisthardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for our church fall book study. It is hard to rate theology books on Goodreads. Overall, I enjoyed the book and Volf is a brilliant thinker. Sometimes I got a little bogged down in his love of big words. The book provided a great jumping off point for group discussions.

[Marcos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leitura necessária em tempos difíceis. Volf não se esquiva dos temas sensíveis e apresenta argumentos sérios de maneira acessível. Recomendo muito!

[Faith Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of public theology.

[Monique Gerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Esperança, num sentido cristão, é amor projetando-se no futuro".

Minha primeira leitura de Miroslav Volf.
Ótimo livro. Teologicamente coerente. Linguagem acessível.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book that convincingly describes have faith (specifically Christian) can exist in a pluralistic society (specifically Western) and result in human flourishing.

[Chrissy Remsberg]

Read for doctorate