Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011). 175 pp.
The first election in which I voted was in 1980. The nation was suffering from what President Carter called a “malaise.” Many of the political class were suggesting that the nation’s troubles were so many and so deep that the office of the President was no longer useful. The Moral Majority was exercising its political muscle and its leaders were calling for “moral leadership.” Ronald Reagan was larger than life. He embraced the religious right and the religious right embraced him. I voted for Reagan in 1980, and again in 1984. I don’t regret it.
However, I do regret being caught in the web of the Moral Majority. Not that I reject their concerns and issues; but I fell into the temptation to believe that the spiritual renewal of a nation can be effected through the ballot box. Of course, elections can have tremendous consequences and certain political policies can spark economic growth. But the soul of a nation cannot be renewed through politics. I have come to believe that both major political parties – Democrat and Republican – are corrupt. And that there are good public servants in both parties, even though their voices are often muted by their party’s leadership.
I have followed the conversations on the right and left regarding the place of religion in the public square. I have found much of the discussion to be ill informed and biased. Here, I must admit my own bias towards the right. None of us can be totally objective.
This brings me to a discussion of Miroslav Volf’s A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Volf’s thesis is “As a prophetic religion, Christian faith will be an active faith, engaged in the world in a noncoercive way – offering blessing to our endeavors, effective comfort in our failures, moral guidance in a complex world, and a framework of meaning for our lives and our activities” (54). The book is written in two parts. Part 1 discusses the malfunctions of faith in the public square; and Part 2 discusses the marks of a properly engaged Christian faith in a pluralistic world.
The malfunctions of faith have been documented by adherents and critics of the Christian faith. Volf is primarily concerned with the malfunction of faith that has led to coercive violence in the name of religion. The marks of a malfunctioning Christian faith are idleness and coercion. Idleness of faith is a result of capitulation to the power of systems, that is, the various spheres of life – politics, law, business, media, etc. The role of faith is restricted to a narrow sphere – private morality – and has little effect upon the autonomous spheres of public life. Another example of idleness is the misconstrual of faith, that is, faith becomes “the opiate of the people,” but fails to energize creativity and promote human flourishing.
Concerning the malfunction of faith as coercion, Volf acknowledges that the Christian faith has been misconstrued to legitimize violence; but rejects the charge that the Christian faith is violence inducing. Also, he acknowledges that many voices seek to eliminate religion from the public square in favor of a secular society; but He rejects the secularization of society. “If secularization progresses,” he writes, “the problem of idleness may turn out to be more significant than the problem of faith’s inappropriate assertiveness” (38). Further, Volf suggest that the elimination of religious voices will become coercive violence perpetrated by the secularists against religious folks.
So, how can Christians reject the temptations of idleness and coercion in favor of a faith that properly engages the public square? Christians must understand that they are losing influence in the centers of power. Therefore, they will most likely exert influence among the margins of society and even there the Christian voice will be one of many. Engaging the culture means that “Christians take part in culturally defined practices but shape them on the basis of their dominate values – rooted in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ” (92). In this engagement, Christians must understand that there will be no total cultural transformation. In other words, “Christians never have their own proper and exclusive cultural territory;” instead, “they inherit the value structure of the culture at large… take up the rules of a given culture, and yet subvert them, change them partly, refuse to obey some of them, and introduce new ones” (93). Just as there will be no total transformation of culture, neither should Christians accommodate the broader culture. To accommodate the broader culture means to lose the Christian identity and fail to make a difference. “The gospel is always… about difference; after all, it means the good news – something good, something new, and therefore something different!” (95).
Volf acknowledges the distinctions that define the various religions of the world. He rejects the “clash of civilizations” which he claims informed President Bush’s war on terror; and he suggests that President Obama’s vision of cooperating religions may be wishful thinking. Volf argues that the Christian faith “opposes religious totalitarianism and supports pluralism as a political project” (142, emphasis mine). In an increasingly religious and pluralistic world Christians must understand their faith “as a way of living centered on Christ in many diverse cultures and civilizations” (144). The Christian voice should declare that God loves the world and acknowledge that religious identity is circumscribed by “permeable boundaries” which are defined as “occasions to learn and to teach, to be enriched and to enrich, to come to new agreements and maybe reinforce old ones, an to dream up new possibilities and explore new paths” (133).
Miroslav Volf has made an important contribution to the discussion of a public faith in a pluralistic world as a political project. But he fails to address the salvific mission of the Christian faith. This may be because this lies beyond the scope of this book. Or, because he seems to embrace a form of universalism in which all humans are saved. For Volf, the primary mission of the church is to share the wisdom of the Christian faith (personified in Christ) to encourage all peoples to “grow out of their petty hopes so as to live meaningful lives, and to help them resolve their grand conflicts and live in communion with others” (100).
I can embrace Volf’s vision if it allows for the salvific mission of the church. The Christian faith is about more than peace among religious folk in this present age. It is about Christ’s victory of over death, and a New Heaven and New Earth. It is about the judgment of evil and the victory of the God. It anticipates the day when “every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:11).
Violent coercion should never be a tool of the church; but persuasive preaching, seasoned with love and patience, with a view to conversion and discipleship must continue to be central to the witness of the Christian faith. In the spirit of Volf’s book, I suggest that the same courtesy should be extended to the adherents of all religious faiths. In the words of Paul, I am not ashamed of the gospel and I have confidence in the convincing power of the Holy Spirit. Peaceful religious dialogue in the spirit of mutual respect and Christian love is the greatest witness to Christ in a pluralistic world.
