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Naked need is the occasion for God's giving, not a need adorned with the clean, elegant robes of respectability and good works.

Miroslav Volf

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Miroslav Volf
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: September 25
Non-Fiction Writer
Theologian
University Teacher
Need
Respectability
Giving
Robes
Needs
Occasion
Good
Elegant
Occasions
Naked
Clean
Works
Adorned

More quotes by Miroslav Volf

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There is no greater mystery to me than that of light traveling through darkness.
Miroslav Volf
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For many Americans, Osama bin Laden is the paradigmatic Muslim, an absurd conviction for anyone who has lived with Muslims.
Miroslav Volf
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If we don't learn to live with one another we will not live. We will either love each other as neighbors or we won't be. I believe that it is an insult to me as a Christian to say that I cannot love as neighbor somebody who thinks differently than I do.
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There is no space in which worship should not take place, no time when it should not occur, and no activity through which it should not happen.
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Does a person have a right to change his or her own religion? This is a fundamental human right, just like a right to freedom of speech.
Miroslav Volf
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God is the utterly loving giver. God doesn't just love. God is love.
Miroslav Volf
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There is no more effective way to radicalize American Muslim youth than for political leaders to make public displays of prejudice against all Muslims. Suspicion will undermine their sense of identification with America and alienate some from both the culture and from politics.
Miroslav Volf
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Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans and myself from the community of sinners.
Miroslav Volf
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To triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one. The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated the second victory, when evil is returned. After the first victory, evil would die if the second victory did not infuse it with new life.
Miroslav Volf
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Absolute hospitality would in no way amount to the absence of violence. To the contrary, it would enthrone violence precisely under the guise of nonviolence because it would leave the violators unchanged and the consequences of violence unremedied.
Miroslav Volf
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I do believe that Muslims and Christians and Jews pray to the same God. And yet they understand who God is in significantly different ways.
Miroslav Volf
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We will not forget so as to be able to rejoice we will rejoice and therefore let those memories (of wrongs suffered) slip out of our minds!
Miroslav Volf
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For Christians, faith is a precious good, the most valuable personal and social resource. When it is left untapped, the common good suffers - not just the particular interests of Christians.
Miroslav Volf
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If I say, 'I forgive you,' I have implicitly said you have done something wrong to me. But what forgiveness is at its heart is both saying that justice has been violated and not letting that violation count against the offender.
Miroslav Volf
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Christians believe that there will be a Judgment Day at the end. And it is my belief that on that day justice will be done and there will be a reconciliation between those who have profoundly injured one another takes place.
Miroslav Volf
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Love properly understood is God—the font of all creation and the ultimate goal of all desires God properly understood is love.
Miroslav Volf
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We lead our lives well when we love God with our whole being and when we love neighbors as we (properly) love ourselves.
Miroslav Volf
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Christ's indwelling presence has freed us from exclusive orientation toward ourselves and opened us up in two directions: toward God, to receive the good things in faith, and toward our neighbor, to pass them on in love.
Miroslav Volf
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Rules help govern and steer a relationship along, so they're good things. But they become bad things when they become the narrow gate though which the relationship must always pass. When this happens, the rules become the basis for the relationship and, in a sense, become a substitute for the relationship.
Miroslav Volf
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Some Jews and Muslims accuse Christians of being idolatrous for believing in the Trinity. My response to both groups is that they fundamentally misunderstand the Christian understanding of the Trinity.
Miroslav Volf