At the height of the Cold War, when the communist East and the capitalist West were growling at each other ominously, my teacher in Germany, Jürgen Moltmann, used to say that we need to remind ourselves that in Moscow people cook their soup with water, just as we do in Bonn or Washington. Soups are different: ideological differences are real, and they matter. But water is the same: commonalities are undeniable and important.

- Miroslav Volf, "Moving from Exclusion to Embrace: Miroslav Volf on Christianity and Islam," interview by Patton Dodd, Patheos.com, 8/29/11