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Thursday, 26 March 2015

Act Two

Exclusion and Embrace: Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation,
Miroslav Volf, Abingdon Press, 1996, page 142-143

Act Two in Volf's Drama of Embrace is waiting. The arms have already been opened, the invitation made. Now the self must wait, so as not to force or coerce the other, otherwise the drama may end abruptly in oppression or suffocation. The ball is in play and it is for the other to respond.

This one-sidedness of action is not "useless". The waiting self can move the other to make the movement toward the self, but its power to do so is the power of signaled desire, of created space, and opened boundary of the self, not the power that breaks the boundaries of the other and forces the fulfillment of desire.

Violence would throw everthing away; this is an embrace, not a grasping after the other.

Posted By Jonathan, 9:00am Comment Comments: