After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity

Sacra doctrina #1

by Miroslav Volf

In After Our Likeness, the inaugural volume in the Sacra Doctrina series, Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as "gathered community" that he shared with Radical Reformers.

Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest a viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due. In the process he engages in a sustained and critical ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiologies of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and the metropolitan John Zizioulas. The result is a brilliant ecumenical study that spells out a vision of the church as an image of the triune God.

Genres: Theology, Ecclesiology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Religion, Christian, Church

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 1997

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.

沃弗

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have laboured through this belaboured book.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 2 out of 5]

So glad to be done. Occasional bright spots, particularly in the last chapter on catholicity, but on the whole one of my least favorite books I’ve read in a long time.

[Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is necessary reading for any current study of ecclesiology both because of Volf's own ecclesiology and because of the two theologians with whom he interacts in the work: Ratzinger and Zizoulas.

Volf's basic thesis is conradictory to his conversation partners. Both Ratzinger and Zizoulas believe that the church should reflect the hierarchy within the Trinity. Volf believes that there is no hierarchy but rather equality in the Trinity and that the structure of the church should reflect that equality.

While my own ecclesiological convictions are much closer to Volf's than Ratzinger or Zizoulas, I find their whole discussion to be based on a faulty premise. While the church is to be transformed into the image of Christ, I do not believe that it is wise or theologically safe to base ones ecclesiology (or ones sociology, anthropology, political theories, or gender theories for that matter) on the Trinity. As is demonstrated in this book, often our views of these horizontal issues of human relations are read back into our views of the Trinity. Volf sees equality because he is looking to justify his free church ecclesiology. Ratzinger and Zizoulas see hierarchy because they are trying to justify their hierarchical ecclesiology. All three theologians find what they seek.

Frankly, despite the popularity and even importance of this book, I believe that it is an example of how NOT to do theology.

[Greg Mathis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deliberately opaque and painfully narcoleptic.

I am sure this book is important. But it assumes too much understanding of the author’s own idiosyncratic verbal tendencies in dealing with an already narrow and specialized field.
Volf clearly understands his subject matter and has been able to parry adeptly with Ratzinger and Zizioulas. But he does so from a social trinitarian framework.

Read at your own risk. Danger to the attention span is high. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery within 24 hours of reading this.

[Zachary Horn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this a very disappointing read. The title is promising, but Volf is not only dense, but his argument is frequently vague and obscured by profound-sounding concepts that lack precision or clarity. I also found his method to be underwhelming.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volf's Exclusion and Embrace is one of my all-tie favorites and his book Allah, discussing the similarities and differences between the Muslim and Christian conceptions of God is a must-read for any interested in the topic. This book is about the church, or ecclesiology for people who like big theological words. Volf spends the first 1/3 of the book setting out the views of Joseph Ratzinger (who became Pope Benedict), representing Roman Catholics, and John Zizoulas, representing Eastern Orthodox. These are Volf's dialogue partners and they have much in common, but of course much that sets them apart.

Volf's arguments are in favor of a "Free Church" view. I don't think he actually defines what he means, though it is clear he is talking about churches that have a congregational government and are more "low church" as opposed to the Catholics and Orthodox. It was interesting he did not really mention mainline Protestants who do have some sort of hierarchy and how their understanding of ecclesiology relates.

That aside, as the title says, Volf's understanding of the Trinity plays a huge part in his understanding of the Church. Just as God is inherently relational, so there is no such thing as a Christian without community. And as opposed to Ratzinger/Zizoulas who both emphasize the larger role of bishops and the "universal" church, Volf argues the local church is formed through the Holy Spirit. There is no "catholicity" to be given from a bishop or higher governing body, this comes from the Spirit and Christ in each local congregation. Also important for Volf is that the universal (catholic) church in some form does not exist yet. Drawing on the eschatology of people like Moltmann, Volf sees the church as drawing us towards a future when it will be one church fully unified. Looking to that time, we aim for unity in our diversity today.

Overall, not a thrilling book. I've not read much ecclesiology since whatever was required in seminary. I appreciate the connections to the Trinity, clearly a theme that drives Volf. I could see any pastor of a "Free Church" appreciating this book and being moved by it.

[Parker Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Volf remains a hero of mine, this book was a slog.

Thoughtful, technical and powerful, and very helpful in considering ecclesiology from a Trinitarian perspective.

I will now digest this book for the next year.

[LeAnne Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very academic; not a light read. I did appreciate his application, though.

[John Dube · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose 3.5 (whatever that means). I find Volf’s methodology cumbersome, namely, studying ecclesiology through Catholic, Eastern Orthodoxy, John Smyth, and the Trinity. Volf’s focus is the universal church, which leaves little focus on the local church. I found myself agreeing with Volf on some points. In some ways this book systematically deconstructs a Catholic/Orthodox ecclesiology in favor of a congregational one (where he does speak of the local church).

[Jay Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Closing: To use the analogy of water, some books are like pouring water into your head, drinking it in, other books are like jumping into a body of water and swimming around. “After our Likeness” is the latter.

Volf’s edited dissertation on eccelsiology is a dense read, as most dissertations are. In it, he attempts to discuss how the Western (and largely American) model of the “Free Church” of congregationalism might gain something from their Eastern and European brethren in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. The first half of the book is dedicated to exploring the ecclesiological ideas of Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Metropolitan bishop John Zizioulas of the Greek Orthodox church. Throughout the discovery of Ratzinger and Zizioulas, we find the writings of John Smyth, a foundational leader in the Baptist tradition, countering and giving a foil to the more episcopal polities of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox.

The second half the book is where Volf begins to attempt to synthesize all of these points of view together. There is quite a bit to understand as Volf tries to see a sort of “third way” of ecclesiology through discussions about who comprises the church, what the roles in the church are, what the gifts of the church mean for the function of the church, how faith and the church interact, and the universal or “Body of Christ” nature of the church.

Each of these subjects could be a book unto itself, so Volf does an excellent job of sparking an idea, but does not go as far as making specific prescriptions or prophecies for the Church and how it may begin to look more like the Trinity, each person comprising a larger and mysteriously unified whole.

I would not recommend this book for the uninitiated. The jargon and sheer amount of Latin in the book make it difficult for someone with a theology degree to fully wrap their minds around it, but for those who can understand such things - I wholeheartedly recommend the book as it gives us a picture of how we might continue to think about the composition of the church as it gathers before the return of Christ.

Book Opening: This book seeks to answer the questions: 1.) What is the church? 2.) What does that have to do with the Trinity? Both questions that could be argued back and forth for years upon years. In fact, they have been.

As a student of generations, I wonder if Miroslav's writings here will turn out to be prophetic as we look into the future of what the Millennial generation is predicted to solidify in terms of ecclesiastical structures. Miroslav approaches the form of "Church" looking from the current structures of episcopal (that is, more hierarchical) and "Free Church" (that is, more independent, autonomous, and egalitarian) models.

Additionally, Miroslav promises to approach these questions with the Trinity in mind, looking at how the community displayed between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can inform the structures of the church as they present themselves for the dawning of yet more years of history before Christ's return.

Thanks to Daniel Prugh for recommending the book.

[Monte Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

“’We are the church!’ . . . The following study is concerned with placing this cry of protest of the Free Churches— ‘We are the church’— into a trinitarian framework and with elevating it to the status of an ecclesiological programe, and with doing so in dialogue with Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiologies.” (11)

Whether they want to or not, Free Churches often function as ‘homogeneous units’ specializing in the specific needs of specific social classes and cultural circles, and then in mutual competition try to sell their commodity at dumping prices to the religious consumer in the supermarket of life projects; the customer is king and the one best suited to evaluate his or her own religious needs and from them nothing more is required than a bit of loyalty and as much money as possible. If the Free Churches want to contribute to the salvation of Christendom, they themselves must first be healed.” (18)

"Because churches in the power of the Holy Spirit, already form a communion with the triune God, ecclesial correspondence to the Trinity can become an object of hope and thus also a task for human beings.” (195)

"My intention here is to make a contribution to the trinitarian reshaping of Free Church ecclesiology.” (197)

"the life and structure of the church cannot be epscopocentric. The church is not a monocentric-bipolar community, however articulated, but rather fundamentally a polycentric community." (224)

"Just as the ecclesial dimension of catholicity becomes manifest through the openness of a particular church to all other churches of God, so also is the creational dimension of catholicity made manifest through its universal openness for all human beings who confess faith in Christ without distinction. Any church that excludes certain people on the basis of race or social class, or that is willing to tolerate such exclusion with indifference, is denying its own catholicity. There can be no catholicity without a willingness to accept other Christian and other churches precisely in their otherness (see Rom 14:1-15:13)! Being open to all human beings, however represents only the minimum of catholicity. Beyond this universal openness, churches should strive to reflect historically the eschatological shalom of the whole people of God through positive integration (not assimilation!) of the entire breadth of cultural wealth within God’s rich creation." (278)

[Ephrem Arcement · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an important contribution to ecumenical dialogue on the nature of the church, providing a perspective that is often neglected: the catholicity of the free church tradition. Volf anchors his unique approach in the perichoretic understanding of the Trinity and methodologically approaches his topic in conversation (and critique) of two ecclesiologies representing the Catholic and Orthodox positions: Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) and John Zizioulas. Herein is my biggest reservation about this otherwise highly insightful book. Each of these representative figures are only singular aspects of their traditions and by no means represent the whole or "official" view. This would have been a better book with a more general analysis of the two traditions. Another reservation is Volf's radical demoncratization of church structures. He doesn't dismiss the validity of episcopal structures but argues for the validity of non-episcopal structures as well, which, he argues, may even at times be better suited for a particular time period and culture. A better alternative and more theologically consistent one may be to see where heirarchical ecclesial structures exist alongside a laity which exerts a robust authority. What is so promising about the modern ecumenical movement is not the legitimizing of diversity in the name of a perichoretic catholicity but the integration of the priesthood of all believers with the ministerial priesthood. From a Catholic perspective, we're not yet where we need to be in this regard, but we're moving in that direction. Volf's book, even when qualified, can help us get there.

[G Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I give Volf too high of a rating... in recent years especially, he seems at best to be confused, more than likely though, he seems to have lost the plot. This was one of the earlier texts that i read when I began to study the Trinity more in depth. I truly enjoyed reading it. that said, I have gone through and reread the book since then... I reread it for two reasons 1) my conversion to Orthodoxy and Volf's engagement with Zizoulas 2) Volf's more recent work on Allah. Anyway, all in all I still really enjoyed it, but do take some more issues with it than I did the first time around. Given the standard that I am judging all the other books by, this one should probably max out at 2 stars, but for the sake of sentimentality, and my love for Volf's earlier work I am giving it 3 :)

[Tyson Guthrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is impossible to capture my feelings about this book via a star-rating. The book's agenda would receive 5 stars. It's methodology would receive 1 star. I might find myself highly recommending the book as a starting point for thinking catholicly about the Free Church, yet I would qualify almost everything Volf says at some point. I immensely enjoyed reading it, but because I found my own thoughts formed in distinction from Volf's.
Perhaps the biggest strike against Volf is the sense that he argued backwards from a sociology to an ecclesiology to an understanding of the Trinity.
So don't read it unless you and I can sit down for coffee and discuss it at length.

[David]

Engages Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox understandings of the church (based on bishops) and sets forth a strong case for the "Free church" (congregational) understanding (based on the gathered people).

[Chris Easton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few books on the Trinity written so eloquently!