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
You have to have enough respect for other human beings to leave their lives alone. If you admire that life, build it for yourself. Don't just try to come in and take somebody else's life.
Elizabeth EdwardsRead
How was she to tie herself to a man without permitting him to imprison her? And was there some means of acquiring things without those things possessing her?
Clarice LispectorRead
By prayer, community is created as well as expressed.
Henri NouwenRead
Men in rage strike those that wish them best.
William ShakespeareRead
Now more than ever, I have learned that, when people die, they truly do live throughout those who love them.
Caroline KennedyRead
Everybody used to talk about Chechnya as a place, in the Russian imperial and Soviet periods, that was essentially governed by extended family and regional networks that substituted for older clan structures. But those networks have been destroyed.
Fiona HillRead