February 25, 2002- Miroslav Volf, winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, will address the key elements of his award-winning book, Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Abingdon, 1996), at a public lecture. The event will be held at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on April 1, 2002, at 7:00 p.m. in the Frank H. and Fannie W. Caldwell Chapel, and the public is invited to attend free of charge.

Professor Volf has become recognized worldwide as a leading scholar and voice on the issue of exclusion, particularly with respect to the dynamics of cultural enmity and strife. Writing out of his first-hand experience of teaching in Croatia during the war in former Yugoslavia, Volf calls not merely upon societies as a whole but upon individuals to become changed in order to foster harmony throughout the world.

Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale University Divinity School, where he has taught since 1998. Born in Croatia, he is also visiting professor of systematic theology at Evangelical Theological Faculty in Osijek, Croatia, where he began his theological training in 1977 and subsequently taught theology from 1984-1991.

Following his studies in Croatia, Volf earned degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A.) in Pasadena, Calif., and the University of Tuebingen (Doctorate) in Germany.

Volf is the author of more than 50 theological articles that have been translated into numerous languages including Dutch, Croatian, Spanish and German, and more than 150 editorials and articles that have been featured in scholarly journals as well as in popular publications such as Christianity Today and Christian Century.

He also has written nine books, including After Our Likeness: The Church as an Image of the Triune God; A Spacious Heart: Essays on Identity and Togetherness; A Passion for God’s Reign: Theology, Christian Learning, and the Christian Self and his award-winning Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation.

Charles Grawemeyer was an industrialist, entrepreneur and University of Louisville graduate who had a lifelong passion for music, education and religious studies. The Grawemeyer Foundation awards $1 million each year, $200,000 each, for works in music composition, education, ideas improving world order, religion and psychology.

For more information on Volf and other Grawemeyer Award winners, go to www.grawemeyer.org.