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Friday, 13 March 2015

Threats to the Self

Exclusion and Embrace: Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation,
Miroslav Volf, Abingdon Press, 1996, page 91-92

It is easy to slip into exclusion - a safety mechanism - if the self feels under threat from the other.

The separation necessary to constitute and maintain a dynamic identity of the self in relation to the other slides into exclusion that seeks to affirm identity at the expense of the other.

Volf labels this as sin.

Consider how this may be worked out in the Jew-Gentile conflict and the mutual antithetical definition of identity in which the church and the synagogue still indulge today. Both exclude the other; Messianic Jews are generally excluded by both, not least because they threaten the exclusion and self-definition of both.

Posted By Jonathan, 9:00am Comment Comments: