REMEMBERING APRIL 17 - THE END OF MEMORY: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World by Yale Theologian Miroslav Volf

Quoting Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil):

"'I have done that,' says my memory.

'I cannot have done that,' says my pride,

and remains inexorable.

Eventually -- memory yields."

* * *

"Remember, yes; but how?"

1.  We should remember truthfully;

2.  We should remember therapeutically.

"Remember, yes; but for how long?"

"Remembering is then part of the pursuit of justice for the victims... Memory is judgment in the absence of more public judgment, including the Last Judgment.  In fulfilling these obligations, Christians who take their faith seriously will aim at forgiveness and reconciliation.  We remember so that we can forgive and reconcile, and since we have an obligation to forgive and reconcile, we have an obligation to remember.  But forgiveness and reconciliation are also tied to the letting go of memories... [A]n unalterable sequence: in deliberate and often difficult steps, we remember, we forgive and reconcile, we let go of memories. The letting go of memories, as I advocate it, is not a unilateral act, one that persons who have been wronged do on their own.  Even forgiveness is not a unilateral act.  Though given unconditionally, it is a git that has to be received, not just extended, for it to be truly given: I must receive forgiveness to be forgiven.  And the letting go of memories -- non-remembrance of an offense -- is even less a unilateral act. It makes sense only after the victim has been redeemed and the perpetrator transformed and after a relationship between them has been redefined through reconciliation.  As long as reconciliation has not taken place, the obligation to remember wrongs stands.  For not only does memory serve justice; memory and justice serve reconciliation."

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