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Do you agree with the rhetoric of war that has been applied to this event?

There has been much talk about "hunting down" and "punishing" the terrorists. That is very dangerous language. Animals are hunted down. That language serves to take the perpetrators out of the very community of our species—"They are the barbarians and animals, and we are the good and decent ones." I agree that we must work to find out who did it and, in a carefully qualified sense, bring those people to justice. But we shouldn't speak in a way that debases their humanity. That kind of language seems to put the perpetrator beyond redemption.

How can there be a genuine reconciliation between terrorist and victim when both are dead? And how can there be an embrace when we don't know who did this?

Christians believe that there will be a Judgment Day at the end. And it is my belief that on that day justice will be done and there will be a reconciliation between those who have profoundly injured one another takes place. My Yale colleague Professor Carlos Eire sometimes visits his relatives in a small community of Cuban immigrants near Chicago. Not long ago, a pious Catholic woman there asked him, "Is it possible for Fidel Castro to be in heaven?" Professor Eire told her that the Christian faith teaches that nobody is beyond the pale of redemption. It is possible for Castro to end up in heaven. There was dead silence. Then she said, "Well, I wouldn't want to be in heaven. I can't imagine a heaven in which I would live with Fidel Castro." This woman could not fathom the scandalous truth that no one—not even our mortal enemies—is beyond divine grace.

Many events in this world remain hidden in deep obscurity. We don't know who all the perpetrators of this evil act are. We don't know exactly how to seek real justice. That is why there will be a Last Judgment. Generally when people talk of Last Judgment, they say it is a horrible day. But the final judgment is good news, certainly good news to the victims, and also good news to the perpetrators, since the judgment will be rendered not only by a just Judge who sees and knows all things but by the judge who has given his life for the salvation of the world. Christ who died on the cross is the same Christ who will sit on the judgment seat and who is going to render the judgment, judgment of justice and of grace. He is the reason why forgiveness and reconciliation are possible.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

To read Volf's vita and publications, visit the Yale Divinity School site.

Volf's articles for Christianity Todayinclude "A Mother's Strange Love," about his adopted son and the book review "Jehovah on Trial."

Volf's Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliationis available from ChristianBook.com.

Previous Christianity Todayarticles by and about Volf include:

Love Your Heavenly Enemy | How are we going to live eternally with those we can't stand now? (Oct. 23, 2000)

Peace Be With You | Looking beyond naivete and cynicism about peacemaking at Wheaton's Christianity and Violence conference. (March 20, 2000)

Miroslav Volf: Speaking truth to the world | (Feb. 8, 1999)

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45