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The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything
We live in the midst of a crisis of home. It is evident in the massive uprooting and migration of millions across the globe, in the anxious nationalism awaiting immigrants in their destinations, in the unhoused populations in wealthy cities, in the fractured households of families, and in the worldwide destruction of habitats and international struggles for dominance. It is evident, perhaps more quietly but just as truly, in the aching sense that there is nowhere we truly belong.
In this moment, the Christian faith has been disappointingly inept in its response. We need a better witness to the God who created, loves, and reconciles this world, who comes to dwell among us.
This book tells the "story of everything" in which God creates the world as the home for humans and for God in communion with God's creatures. The authors render the story of creation, redemption, and consummation through the lens of God's homemaking work and show the theological fruit of telling the story this way. The result is a vision that can inspire creative Christian living in our various homes today in faithfulness to God's ongoing work.
In this moment, the Christian faith has been disappointingly inept in its response. We need a better witness to the God who created, loves, and reconciles this world, who comes to dwell among us.
This book tells the "story of everything" in which God creates the world as the home for humans and for God in communion with God's creatures. The authors render the story of creation, redemption, and consummation through the lens of God's homemaking work and show the theological fruit of telling the story this way. The result is a vision that can inspire creative Christian living in our various homes today in faithfulness to God's ongoing work.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 27, 2022
42 people are currently reading
1330 people want to read
About the author
Miroslav Volf
70 books333 followersMiroslav 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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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 13, 2024
Ich würde dem Buch 3,5 bis 4 Sterne geben. Der letzte Stern fehlt mir, weil der Ansatz im Buch eigentlich ein biblischer ist. Damit ich nicht falsch verstanden werde: natürlich braucht es biblische Überlegungen. Diese sind meines Verständnisses nach aber nur ein Teil der Systematischen Theologie. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass die ST sich enorm wenig mit dem Thema Heimat beschäftigt hat.
Am Ende habe ich einige Seiten sehr schnell überflogen, weil lediglich die Exoduserzählung nacherzählt wurde oder Texte aus dem Johannesevangelium wiedergegeben wurden. Ein paar spannende Nebenkommentare konnte ich aber trotzdem daraus mitnehmen.
Aufgrund meines Promotionsvorhabens waren für mich die eschatologischen Überlegungen in den letzten drei Kapiteln natürlich am wichtigsten und spannendsten. Diese fand ich sehr erfrischend und interessant strukturiert. Auch das einführende Kapitel fand ich sehr gut. Dort definiert er Heimat und nennt einige Differenzierungen.
Am Ende habe ich einige Seiten sehr schnell überflogen, weil lediglich die Exoduserzählung nacherzählt wurde oder Texte aus dem Johannesevangelium wiedergegeben wurden. Ein paar spannende Nebenkommentare konnte ich aber trotzdem daraus mitnehmen.
Aufgrund meines Promotionsvorhabens waren für mich die eschatologischen Überlegungen in den letzten drei Kapiteln natürlich am wichtigsten und spannendsten. Diese fand ich sehr erfrischend und interessant strukturiert. Auch das einführende Kapitel fand ich sehr gut. Dort definiert er Heimat und nennt einige Differenzierungen.
June 4, 2023
Not a quick read, but remarkable insight. I appreciated how the authors worked to understand the human condition, rather than flippantly stand in judgment. And then portrayed a God who is ever-willing to do the same. The thread of God giving his people home rang true throughout the book.
May 18, 2022
Is it possible to have a favorite theologian?
Of course it is.
My love for the work of Miroslav Volf likely began at the same point it began for many individuals familiar with his work - with 1996's "Exclusion and Embrace," a masterpiece (in my opinion) acknowledged by Christianity Today as one of the 100 Most Important Religious Books of the 20th century.
"Exclusion and Embrace" changed my life. As a survivor of significant trauma and one who lives with significant disabilities, I've long had a complex, challenged relationship with organized religion and Volf's ability to write and lecture about the complexities of life, relationship, trauma, and the practicalities of daily living has helped me profoundly in academic, practical, theological, and deeply personal ways.
This has continued over the years with a variety of other works both written and spoken with "End of Memory" particularly impacting my life as a person of faith.
With "The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything," a book that Volf co-writes with Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Volf creates an account of the story of creation, redemption, and consummation through the lens of God's homemaking work. "The Home of God" shows the theological fruit of telling the story this way.
For those familiar with Volf's writing, it will be unsurprising that "The Home of God" has a strong academic tone to it. Volf's exegesis of scripture has always been comprehensive yet intimately woven into the fabric of his discussions. Nearly 1/3 of "The Home of God" is comprised of Volf's sources for the book and the research, which I imagine comes naturally for Volf, is exhaustive and, at least for this markedly less learned Christian, sometimes downright exhausting.
"The Home of God" is a book that required I take it in smaller pieces, absorbing the knowledge yet also absorbing the applicability of the knowledge. Volf, as is always true, doesn't simply share knowledge for the sake of sharing knowledge but also applies that knowledge to Christian living. As I wound down my reading of "The Home of God," I chuckled to myself "He wasn't kidding. This really is a brief story of everything."
Volf believes we need a better witness to the God who created, loves, and reconciles this world, who comes to dwell among us and with "The Home of God" he sets out to theologically and scripturally validate this belief. A systematic theology with flexible boundaries as to what systematic theology means, "The Home of God" particularly dwells within Exodus and John and shares what Jurgen Moltmann calls the "ecology of God." (As a side note, like Volf I am similarly inspired by Moltmann).
It is arguable, I suppose, that "The Home of God" struggles at times to find a balance between academic Volf/McAnnally-Linz and the more literary prose that often flows out of the academics. Truthfully, I somewhat leaned toward a 4-star rating as this occasional imbalance at times impacted my reading experience of "The Home of God."
Yet, time and again as I sat down to write this review and reflection I found myself vividly feeling the words and ideas and beliefs and lessons unfolding in "The Home of God." I found myself returning to Volf's resources here and looking up and learning more. I found myself reflecting upon the applicability of these stories and realizing how immersed in them I'd become. While I don't think, necessarily, that the casual theologian will find "The Home of God" a welcoming read, for those familiar with theological concepts and terminology this is an insightful, well-informed, and absolutely inspirational theological work.
As I began winding down my time with "The Home of God," I began connecting this work to Volf's other works and I began realizing that when I embrace this idea of the indwelling of God within this earth and within our lives that I can also then imagine a God intent on existing within our human experiences whether that be disability or trauma or any other subject that Volf has approached in his work. There is a thread that ties it all together and as I sit here thinking about it I can't help but weep.
Indeed, Miroslav Volf is one of the very few theologians who can stimulate me intellectually and bring me to tears.
He's done it once again.
Of course it is.
My love for the work of Miroslav Volf likely began at the same point it began for many individuals familiar with his work - with 1996's "Exclusion and Embrace," a masterpiece (in my opinion) acknowledged by Christianity Today as one of the 100 Most Important Religious Books of the 20th century.
"Exclusion and Embrace" changed my life. As a survivor of significant trauma and one who lives with significant disabilities, I've long had a complex, challenged relationship with organized religion and Volf's ability to write and lecture about the complexities of life, relationship, trauma, and the practicalities of daily living has helped me profoundly in academic, practical, theological, and deeply personal ways.
This has continued over the years with a variety of other works both written and spoken with "End of Memory" particularly impacting my life as a person of faith.
With "The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything," a book that Volf co-writes with Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Volf creates an account of the story of creation, redemption, and consummation through the lens of God's homemaking work. "The Home of God" shows the theological fruit of telling the story this way.
For those familiar with Volf's writing, it will be unsurprising that "The Home of God" has a strong academic tone to it. Volf's exegesis of scripture has always been comprehensive yet intimately woven into the fabric of his discussions. Nearly 1/3 of "The Home of God" is comprised of Volf's sources for the book and the research, which I imagine comes naturally for Volf, is exhaustive and, at least for this markedly less learned Christian, sometimes downright exhausting.
"The Home of God" is a book that required I take it in smaller pieces, absorbing the knowledge yet also absorbing the applicability of the knowledge. Volf, as is always true, doesn't simply share knowledge for the sake of sharing knowledge but also applies that knowledge to Christian living. As I wound down my reading of "The Home of God," I chuckled to myself "He wasn't kidding. This really is a brief story of everything."
Volf believes we need a better witness to the God who created, loves, and reconciles this world, who comes to dwell among us and with "The Home of God" he sets out to theologically and scripturally validate this belief. A systematic theology with flexible boundaries as to what systematic theology means, "The Home of God" particularly dwells within Exodus and John and shares what Jurgen Moltmann calls the "ecology of God." (As a side note, like Volf I am similarly inspired by Moltmann).
It is arguable, I suppose, that "The Home of God" struggles at times to find a balance between academic Volf/McAnnally-Linz and the more literary prose that often flows out of the academics. Truthfully, I somewhat leaned toward a 4-star rating as this occasional imbalance at times impacted my reading experience of "The Home of God."
Yet, time and again as I sat down to write this review and reflection I found myself vividly feeling the words and ideas and beliefs and lessons unfolding in "The Home of God." I found myself returning to Volf's resources here and looking up and learning more. I found myself reflecting upon the applicability of these stories and realizing how immersed in them I'd become. While I don't think, necessarily, that the casual theologian will find "The Home of God" a welcoming read, for those familiar with theological concepts and terminology this is an insightful, well-informed, and absolutely inspirational theological work.
As I began winding down my time with "The Home of God," I began connecting this work to Volf's other works and I began realizing that when I embrace this idea of the indwelling of God within this earth and within our lives that I can also then imagine a God intent on existing within our human experiences whether that be disability or trauma or any other subject that Volf has approached in his work. There is a thread that ties it all together and as I sit here thinking about it I can't help but weep.
Indeed, Miroslav Volf is one of the very few theologians who can stimulate me intellectually and bring me to tears.
He's done it once again.
December 5, 2022
Miroslav Volf brings together in a fresh way many of the central images and thoughts of Scripture. For me the result was theologically powerful and gave a helpful model for thinking about life, the future, the world, the problem of evil and the will of God.
March 15, 2024
Appreciated a lot of what this book had to offer, but it was a real slog to get through.
October 22, 2022
In 2019, Miroslav Volf presented the University of Birmingham’s Cadbury Lectures, speaking on the topic of the world as God’s home. That content has been reworked with Ryan McAnnally-Linz into book form and released as The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything. Central to the book’s thesis is that there is a crisis of homelessness—not just social, but existential. We, as humanity, are increasingly alienated from any sense of home. In some ways, this is integral to the Christian journey. We are pilgrims passing through to an eternal home. But in other ways, we are called to a pilgrimage toward a world in which God has made his home.
Those who have read Volf before can rest assured that this is quintessential Volf—rigorously academic, poignantly passionate, nuanced yet clear. Volf describes The Home of God as a systematic theology, though it is hardly such in the traditional meaning. Rather, it is systematic as a theological paradigm through which everything is viewed. Volf begins with the Exodus as the story of a homecoming—of God creating a home and a nation for an enslaved people. The book draws out themes of home that will eventually see full fruition at the end of the book of Revelation when God makes all things new.
From there, Volf moves to a discussion of the Gospel of John and the incarnation, about how God came to make his home among people—fulfilling a foreshadowing of His presence in the Tabernacle of the Exodus. This part of the book takes us through the Gospel as Jesus presents himself as God and what implications there are for God having come to dwell among us. The third part moves to an exploration of God’s Spirit making the world her home and talks about how Jesus, through the Spirit builds this idea of the church as a Christian family with the church as its home.
Finally, Volf moves into the eschatological, moving to Revelation and concluding with the words of John’s Revelation being something revealed: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. The only thing I would have liked to have seen added as a substantive discussion, something that truly would have made this “a brief history of everything” as the subtitle implied, would have been a discussion of Creation.
The Home of God is deep, immersive, and thoughtful. Volf and McAnnally-Linz force readers to reread Scripture with the view that God’s creation and His people were meant to be His home. This is drastically different from the typical, pop-culture, evangelical view of “I’ll fly away, O glory” and a God whose home is markedly separate from his creation. The result is a presentation of Creation as something much more valuable than we’ve often made it. The Home of God is a book to be read slowly, considered carefully, and discussed deeply.
Those who have read Volf before can rest assured that this is quintessential Volf—rigorously academic, poignantly passionate, nuanced yet clear. Volf describes The Home of God as a systematic theology, though it is hardly such in the traditional meaning. Rather, it is systematic as a theological paradigm through which everything is viewed. Volf begins with the Exodus as the story of a homecoming—of God creating a home and a nation for an enslaved people. The book draws out themes of home that will eventually see full fruition at the end of the book of Revelation when God makes all things new.
From there, Volf moves to a discussion of the Gospel of John and the incarnation, about how God came to make his home among people—fulfilling a foreshadowing of His presence in the Tabernacle of the Exodus. This part of the book takes us through the Gospel as Jesus presents himself as God and what implications there are for God having come to dwell among us. The third part moves to an exploration of God’s Spirit making the world her home and talks about how Jesus, through the Spirit builds this idea of the church as a Christian family with the church as its home.
Finally, Volf moves into the eschatological, moving to Revelation and concluding with the words of John’s Revelation being something revealed: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. The only thing I would have liked to have seen added as a substantive discussion, something that truly would have made this “a brief history of everything” as the subtitle implied, would have been a discussion of Creation.
The Home of God is deep, immersive, and thoughtful. Volf and McAnnally-Linz force readers to reread Scripture with the view that God’s creation and His people were meant to be His home. This is drastically different from the typical, pop-culture, evangelical view of “I’ll fly away, O glory” and a God whose home is markedly separate from his creation. The result is a presentation of Creation as something much more valuable than we’ve often made it. The Home of God is a book to be read slowly, considered carefully, and discussed deeply.
July 17, 2024
This book has five star ideas and closer to a three-point-five star presentation, hence the four star rating. I know it's an academic work but it was still a slog for me to get through at times, and I want to reserve my five stars for books whose ideas and style both spark delight.
That said, let's focus on the five star part. The premise of this book is that the best metaphor to describe “God's purposes in the world”—to describe, as the subtitle goes, “the story of everything”—is that God is on a quest to make us and this world his home.
You may have heard, like I have, that we humans are made to be with God, and that the culmination of our existence will to go be where he is. The first statement is true: we are made to be with him. The latter one, however, according to Volf and McAnnally-Linz, gets the direction wrong. God isn't waiting for us to come to him. He is coming to us. This isn't just one historical act through the incarnation; it's the overarching direction of all history, the summation of all meaning. Even before the fall, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. He made this world to be his home, and not even sin, death, and evil can get in the way of that. Sanctification can be considered the process by which we are prepared to become fitting homes for God. It's not so much "God is our true home" as it is "we are God's true home." And rather than elevate humans inappropriately, as it first sounded to me, that crazy statement magnifies the greatness of God's love and goodness.
There are two things I really love about this metaphor, which the authors also emphasize. The first is that “home” is the most universal, primal, and intimate experience. Some theologians argue that this world, and us humans, are to be thought of primarily as God's temple. But not all cultures have temples. All cultures have, albeit in widely varying forms, homes.
In the authors' words:
"Home is a bounded material, social, and personal space of resonance and reciprocal belonging that is at its best when it is situated in a home-like relation to all other spaces on the great 'home' that is our planet. We misconstrue home when we see it merely as one domain of functionally differentiated in life—a domestic one, as distinct from political, economic, educational, or religious. In its own way, home integrates all these domains….Home still comes closer to being a concentrated site of all dimensions of life than any social formation we can think of, certainly closer to it than 'kingdom' or 'temple.' That's why in a theology of life, as ours aspires to be, home is a good metaphor for God's purposes with the world."
This also opens up the door for them to discuss the definition of home and to acknowledge the deep pain the idea of home can arouse in people. They coin the Greek hodgepodge term of dysoikos to describe the perversion of home that is unfortunately common in the human experience, “home-suffering-its-characteristic-damages-under-sin.” Using Exodus’ Egypt and Revelation’s Babylon, they argue that the Bible contrasts God's vision of the world as home with the dysoikic homes we currently inhabit. This contrast faces reality unflinchingly and helps us see the beauty of God's vision.
The other thing I love about this metaphor is how it dignifies this world—including our relationships here and the very materiality of it. This isn't a surprise, given that it’s Volf writing, but it's such a refreshing shift from the suspicious attitudes toward this world that I absorbed growing up, whether in relation to the natural world or social systems and culture. Of course because this world is broken, there is much to rightly criticize. But originally and even still ontologically it is good, beloved by God, and the proper subject of our love (rightly ordered).
God wants to come to this world and make it and us his home. That automatically gives it far more dignity and significance than it has if you operate under the assumption that it is all going to be destroyed and that our ideal state is in some alternative reality (usually imagined as distant and disembodied) with God. This world and the things in it matter. They are not solely obstacles to cleared out of the way before we reach paradise but somehow, imperfect as they currently are, the building blocks of paradise themselves.
I'm continually inspired by this perspective. It radically changes how we engage with politics, art, the environment, justice, technology, economics, our neighborhoods and relationships.
Volf and McAnnally-Linz again:
"The strength of the 'God alone' view is its focus on the singular and supreme importance of God. Its weakness is that it has to disregard the overwhelmingly worldly character of biblical eschatological hopes. The home of God metaphor allows us to hold on to both the centrality of God and the worldly character of ultimate fulfillment. Every good comes from God, creatures’ ultimate fulfillment most of all. And for every good, humans owe God gratitude and praise. Since God is the ultimate Good, humans ought to love God above all things and for God's own sake. But to love God is to love the world that God loves and to love it, as we will argue (leaning on Augustine), with the love with which God loves it and which God is (see chap. 6). If this idea appears startlingly 'worldly,' that's because the holy and transcendent God is surprisingly worldly—desiring to make a home and be at home in the beloved creation."
The methodology of the book as a whole was also incredibly encouraging to me. A systematic theology grounded in rigorous biblical analysis? Yes please! It's always exciting when you get biblical scholars like NT Wright and theologians like Willie James Jennings to endorse the same book. I also appreciated that the the authros narrowed their argument to three books (and two “authors,” so to speak): Exodus, John, and Revelation. They trace the progressing themes of home in God’s original covenantal people of Israel, home in God’s new incarnated covenant in the church, home in God’s eschatological plan.
I came away seeing the biblical story in a totally new light, the world around me with fresh delight, and the God who, insanely, wants to make his home with us with deeper love. I'm excited for the forthcoming books in this series.
"In [Ezekiel's] vision, the throne and the holy of holies were one and the same, and both were separated from the city and the land. In the New Jerusalem, there is no separation. The entire city is the throne and the holy of holies in one. The overlapping identities as kings and priests echo God's speech to the house of Jacob assembled at Sinai. Before giving the instructions and making the covenant through which they became God's people for God to dwell with, God said to them, 'If you obey my voice and keep my covenant…you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation' (Exod. 19:5-6). And now, at the end of the story of everything, the condition of obedience has been fully and unalterably met. God has come down to dwell in the city on the mountain, which is the whole world."
That said, let's focus on the five star part. The premise of this book is that the best metaphor to describe “God's purposes in the world”—to describe, as the subtitle goes, “the story of everything”—is that God is on a quest to make us and this world his home.
You may have heard, like I have, that we humans are made to be with God, and that the culmination of our existence will to go be where he is. The first statement is true: we are made to be with him. The latter one, however, according to Volf and McAnnally-Linz, gets the direction wrong. God isn't waiting for us to come to him. He is coming to us. This isn't just one historical act through the incarnation; it's the overarching direction of all history, the summation of all meaning. Even before the fall, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. He made this world to be his home, and not even sin, death, and evil can get in the way of that. Sanctification can be considered the process by which we are prepared to become fitting homes for God. It's not so much "God is our true home" as it is "we are God's true home." And rather than elevate humans inappropriately, as it first sounded to me, that crazy statement magnifies the greatness of God's love and goodness.
There are two things I really love about this metaphor, which the authors also emphasize. The first is that “home” is the most universal, primal, and intimate experience. Some theologians argue that this world, and us humans, are to be thought of primarily as God's temple. But not all cultures have temples. All cultures have, albeit in widely varying forms, homes.
In the authors' words:
"Home is a bounded material, social, and personal space of resonance and reciprocal belonging that is at its best when it is situated in a home-like relation to all other spaces on the great 'home' that is our planet. We misconstrue home when we see it merely as one domain of functionally differentiated in life—a domestic one, as distinct from political, economic, educational, or religious. In its own way, home integrates all these domains….Home still comes closer to being a concentrated site of all dimensions of life than any social formation we can think of, certainly closer to it than 'kingdom' or 'temple.' That's why in a theology of life, as ours aspires to be, home is a good metaphor for God's purposes with the world."
This also opens up the door for them to discuss the definition of home and to acknowledge the deep pain the idea of home can arouse in people. They coin the Greek hodgepodge term of dysoikos to describe the perversion of home that is unfortunately common in the human experience, “home-suffering-its-characteristic-damages-under-sin.” Using Exodus’ Egypt and Revelation’s Babylon, they argue that the Bible contrasts God's vision of the world as home with the dysoikic homes we currently inhabit. This contrast faces reality unflinchingly and helps us see the beauty of God's vision.
The other thing I love about this metaphor is how it dignifies this world—including our relationships here and the very materiality of it. This isn't a surprise, given that it’s Volf writing, but it's such a refreshing shift from the suspicious attitudes toward this world that I absorbed growing up, whether in relation to the natural world or social systems and culture. Of course because this world is broken, there is much to rightly criticize. But originally and even still ontologically it is good, beloved by God, and the proper subject of our love (rightly ordered).
God wants to come to this world and make it and us his home. That automatically gives it far more dignity and significance than it has if you operate under the assumption that it is all going to be destroyed and that our ideal state is in some alternative reality (usually imagined as distant and disembodied) with God. This world and the things in it matter. They are not solely obstacles to cleared out of the way before we reach paradise but somehow, imperfect as they currently are, the building blocks of paradise themselves.
I'm continually inspired by this perspective. It radically changes how we engage with politics, art, the environment, justice, technology, economics, our neighborhoods and relationships.
Volf and McAnnally-Linz again:
"The strength of the 'God alone' view is its focus on the singular and supreme importance of God. Its weakness is that it has to disregard the overwhelmingly worldly character of biblical eschatological hopes. The home of God metaphor allows us to hold on to both the centrality of God and the worldly character of ultimate fulfillment. Every good comes from God, creatures’ ultimate fulfillment most of all. And for every good, humans owe God gratitude and praise. Since God is the ultimate Good, humans ought to love God above all things and for God's own sake. But to love God is to love the world that God loves and to love it, as we will argue (leaning on Augustine), with the love with which God loves it and which God is (see chap. 6). If this idea appears startlingly 'worldly,' that's because the holy and transcendent God is surprisingly worldly—desiring to make a home and be at home in the beloved creation."
The methodology of the book as a whole was also incredibly encouraging to me. A systematic theology grounded in rigorous biblical analysis? Yes please! It's always exciting when you get biblical scholars like NT Wright and theologians like Willie James Jennings to endorse the same book. I also appreciated that the the authros narrowed their argument to three books (and two “authors,” so to speak): Exodus, John, and Revelation. They trace the progressing themes of home in God’s original covenantal people of Israel, home in God’s new incarnated covenant in the church, home in God’s eschatological plan.
I came away seeing the biblical story in a totally new light, the world around me with fresh delight, and the God who, insanely, wants to make his home with us with deeper love. I'm excited for the forthcoming books in this series.
"In [Ezekiel's] vision, the throne and the holy of holies were one and the same, and both were separated from the city and the land. In the New Jerusalem, there is no separation. The entire city is the throne and the holy of holies in one. The overlapping identities as kings and priests echo God's speech to the house of Jacob assembled at Sinai. Before giving the instructions and making the covenant through which they became God's people for God to dwell with, God said to them, 'If you obey my voice and keep my covenant…you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation' (Exod. 19:5-6). And now, at the end of the story of everything, the condition of obedience has been fully and unalterably met. God has come down to dwell in the city on the mountain, which is the whole world."
August 10, 2022
This is the first book that I have read by Miroslav Volf and I will be back to read more. In "The Home of God", Volf co-writes with Ryan McAnnally-Linz. "The Home of God" argues that "Home" is the central, unifying telos of the Biblical narrative. The writers draw out that many of us have a vague but deep and demanding desire for the peaceful contentment of belonging. Volf and McAnnally-Lin show from the arc of the scriptural narrative that the Christian faith presents a vision of creation becoming complete and whole as God indwells it - becoming both the home of God and the home of his creatures. The writers make build their case from an exposition of three key biblical texts Exodus, John, and Revelation. I was particularly impacted by the chapters on Revelation and the vision of the Great God who shares his glory with his creatures.
I have greatly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to all ministers, theological students and all those who think and dream of an enduring "home" that is not poisoned by the oppression of Babylon!
I have greatly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to all ministers, theological students and all those who think and dream of an enduring "home" that is not poisoned by the oppression of Babylon!
January 15, 2025
Excellent tandem work by Volf and McAnnally-Linz! Weaving together the narratives of Exodus, John, and Revelation, this book gave an in-depth (and meaningful) look at how God has always sought to make a home with His people in this world. The authors give a fresh and insightful perspective by connecting three pivotal books of the Scriptures and helping the reader see the central theme of how God desires to connect with humanity.
February 19, 2023
This wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but it was very good. This is the first book in a systematic theology and at times I thought, "geez, I might as well have picked up Calvin's Institutes." But Volf's and Linz's premise of home is very interesting. They use Exodus, John, and Revelation as their guiding scriptures.
October 28, 2024
excellent excellent excellent. chapter 4 in particular moved me deeply as it reframed Christ’s life death and resurrection in light of his home-making purposes - “more than just conquering death and securing eternal liveliness, the resurrection of Christ makes possible the continued presence of Christ in this world” (122).
“the age of the Spirit has begun”
“the age of the Spirit has begun”
December 14, 2024
I’m content to read the “long, tedious, impervious-to-critique” version, but I *really* look forward to whenever they (or someone else) gets around to the lay “so what this really means for non-ivy-league-theologians is…” version. That book could be a game-changer.
February 2, 2024
Astonishing. This is one to read, reread, and internalize.
August 15, 2024
I enjoyed the content but the format wasn’t always very engaging.
February 16, 2025
String concepts but dense writing.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews