If we can exit a relationship, pressure to reconcile lessens; if we must live with those who have wronged us, we are pushed to reconcile.
Miroslav VolfRead
Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans and myself from the community of sinners.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Forgiveness is hindered when we view others as enemies rather than as fellow humans sharing the same flaws.
This quote by Miroslav Volf highlights the importance of recognizing our shared humanity in the process of forgiveness. When we treat those who hurt us as outsiders, and not just as flawed individuals like ourselves, it becomes difficult to embrace the act of forgiveness, as we create a divide that prevents understanding and empathy from flourishing.
Themes
ForgivenessHumanityUnderstandingEmpathyRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about conflict resolution, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for forgiveness.
More from Miroslav Volf
All quotes βLove properly understood is Godβthe font of all creation and the ultimate goal of all desires; God properly understood is love.
Miroslav VolfRead
If no one remembers a misdeed or names it publically, it remains invisible. To the observer, its victim is not a victim and its perpetrator is not a perpetrator; both are misperceived because the suffering of the one and the violence of the other go unseen. A double injustice occurs-the first when the original deed is done and the second when it disappears.
Miroslav VolfRead
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.
Miroslav VolfRead
To affirm that God is God is to want to live in a particular way.
Miroslav VolfRead
Some of the worst violence in the world today between estranged religious and ethnic groups happens not on the battlefields. It happens smack in the middle of living rooms and between people who share a lot, who have a lot in common.
Miroslav VolfRead
Similar quotes
I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye out that I don't get sentimental. I think we're all afraid to reveal our hearts. It's not at all in fashion.
Paul SimonRead
When a child shuts down his painful emotional side, he also loses the ability to express his joyous side. Emotions are a whole. With anger comes the ability to express delight; with sadness comes the ability to express lightheartedness. This is the breadth of emotion that allows an adult to experience intimacy with a spouse, with God, and with his children
Henry CloudRead
Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women - from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace.
Gloria SteinemRead
Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and no matter how much we despised ourselves for it--unable quite to let each other go.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
When you feel WHOLE, things come to enhance your WHOLEness. When you feel broken, things come to enhance your brokenness. That's why you CANNOT FILL A VOID. That's why the premise from which you attract your relationship is so important.
Esther HicksRead
The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity.
Aldous HuxleyRead