A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good.

Nessan, Craig L.

A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good By Miroslav Volf. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press. 2010. ISBN: 978-1-5874-3298-9. xvii and 174 pages. Cloth. $21.99.

A Public Faith by Yale professor Miroslav Volf aims to steer between two extremes. On the one side are exclusive religious claims that will not allow for the legitimacy of other viewpoints. This approach leads to religious intolerance and imperialism. On the other side are secular attempts to exclude religion from the public square altogether. This extreme leads to the marginalization of .the religious voice in society. The author argues that people of faith need to move beyond such "malfunctions of faith." Neither "coerciveness" nor "idleness" is adequate as a religious stance in relation to public life. Vail is convinced that religious people .can make a meaningful contribution to public matters on behalf of "human flourishing." He approaches this dilemma as a public intellectual and as a Christian.

Volf's constructive proposal is for an "engaged faith." Such an approach requires balance between claiming one's own religious identity, while at the same time respecting religious difference. Obedience to the commandment to love one's neighbor plays a significant role in his argument. Religious people, including Christians, have real wisdom that needs to be shared for the sake of the common good, because finally all truthful wisdom comes from God in Christ. Christians do so not as tyrants, merchants, midwives, or even as mere teachers of others. Instead they enter the public sphere both to receive wisdom from others and as those who seek to impart the core wisdom of their own tradition, epitomized in love and forgiveness.

Authentic public engagement by Christians does not aim at the restoration of some idealized "Christian America." Rather, Christians should affirm full engagement in the possibilities of "the pluralistic political arrangements" (126) afforded by liberal democracy at its best (so Wolterstorti). There is room in this arrangement for religious people to speak in their own voices, even as they aim to foster a "culture of peace." While the reader may be persuaded by the moderation of Volf's argument, the forces that promote the extremes--either of religious intolerance or the complete silencing of the religious voice in politics--are mighty. May we somehow find our way toward the balance which Volt' advocates!