Friday, April 18
Free Public Lecture
Can we Forgive Without God?
7:30 p.m. • Rm. 1100, Grainger Hall
Full Program Description PDF
We are at our human best when we give and forgive. But we live in a world in which it
makes little sense to do either one. Dr. Volf will confront us with the question of even our
capability to forgive, if God is not in the equation.
As a native of war-ravaged Croatia and son of a father who endured unspeakable torture
at the hands of concentration camp guards, Dr. Volf understands more than many about
the horrors of indiscriminate brutality. Despite his experiences, Dr. Volf has spent decades
building a theological legacy of forgiveness, generosity, reconciliation and nonviolence.
Miroslav Volf is author of multiple scholarly articles and books including:
- Exclusion and Embrace
Dr. Volf masterfully probes the depths of a Christian understanding of reconciliation, spurred, in part, by the experience of ethnic-religious conflict in the Balkans. Weaving together theology and philosophy, as well as the social sciences, what emerges is an invaluable contribution to constructive theology, which finds the answer to exclusion in the cross of Christ. Winner of the 2001 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
- Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace
Drawn from popular culture as well as from a wealth of literary and theological sources, Dr. Volf weaves his rich reflections around the sturdy frame of Paul's vision of God's grace and Martin Luther's interpretation of that vision. Blending the best of theology and spirituality, he encourages us to echo in our own lives God's generous giving and forgiving.
- The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World Can one forget atrocities?
Should one forgive abusers? Ought we not hope for the final reconciliation of all the wronged and all wrongdoers alike, even if it means spending eternity with perpetrators of evil? We live in an age when it is generally accepted that past wrongs–genocides, terrorist attacks, bald personal injustices–
should be constantly remembered. But Dr. Volf proposes the radical idea that letting go of such memories, after a certain point and under certain conditions, may actually be the appropriate course of action.