The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World

Miroslav Volf is an evangelical theologian and professor at Yale Divinity School. He also grew up in the former Yugoslavia and its communist rule. And it is precisely his experiences in Yugoslavia during his year of mandatory military service that provide the focus for this book, a sustained reflection on the meaning of memory and grace with regard to wrongs committed against us. Volf sets up his reflections by recounting his memory of the sustained interrogations to which he was subjected by "Captain G." during his year of military service. Because of his training in America, his background in theology, his critique of Marxism, and his marriage to an American, he was a person of suspicion. This resulted in sustained interrogations, threats of detainment, and psychological torture. This background leads him to the question, What does it mean to remember these wrongs done against us? The first stage of his argument deals with the question of if we should remember. In today's culture, especially in the wake of the Holocaust and other attrocities of the past century, the answer seems an obvious yes. And Volf echoes this answer, marshalling the call of such people as Elie Wiesel, who rally around the cry, Remember! It is important to acknowledge wrongdoing, and to recognize both those who are wrong and those who have been wronged. But, he also turns us to wrestle with the question of how we should remember. Memory is important, but it is also ambiguous. Memory can be put to many uses. It can help us to prevent further wrongs or atrocities, but it can also lead us to perpetrate wrongs out of self-interest (say out of the desire to not be a victim again ourselves). So the first facet of memory that Volf emphasizes is that we must remember truthfully. This means honestly seeking as complete an understanding of events as possible, admitting the points of view of others than ourselves, and acknowledging the complexities that are often inherent in these situations. It is often easy in situations where we have been wronged to make out the perpetrator as the "evil" party and ourselves as the "good" or "innocent" party. But the facts often reveal a more complex picture. While the evil can still be named as such, there is often more to it, such as the fact that Captain G. was operating within a system that condoned and encouraged his behavior toward Volf and other suspects. A second important facet of our remembering is that it is to be in service of reconciliation. We are to strive to bring a full and accurate account of events to mind so that we can fully acknowledge the situation, along with the perperatator, and then offer forgiveness and grace to that person, and, when it is received, enter into a new and reconciled relationship with them, beyond the roles of perpetrator and victim, where the wrong is forgotten. This brings us to the third major theme of Volf's book. Beyond memory, and beyond a certain type of remembering in service of grace, comes fo

Is it possible to forget atrocities, and should one really forgive abusers? How does memory interact with social injunctions that past wrongs never be forgotten? THE END OF MEMORY: REMEMBERING RIGHTLY IN A VIOLENT WORLD will appeal to many different collections; from health and psychology holdings to social issues and history collections at the college level. These libraries will find both controversial and insightful discussions that delve into both the origins of violent memories and their purposes and the conflicts over whether to keep them alive for future generations or in the background to allow healing. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Volf gets to the heart of our society's bullying stance by asking: How much of my (our) future will I (we) allow our tormentors to colonize? With the mind and method of premier scholarship and the heart of a poet, Volf probes the question personally and asks it publicly. Never an easy read, but probably an essential one for folks of real hope and deep honesty. He is clear, "Both ways in which this book disturbs conventional opinion are rooted in a single conviction: the proper goal of the memory of wrongs suffered-- its appropriate end-- is the formation of the communion of love between all people, including victims and perpetrators."(p.232) He desires a radical responsibility of all people and challenges us to step into it by learning to "remember rightly."

In a post Holocaust, post (this is ethonocentric, I know) 9/11 world the world, we are commonly called to Remember the wrongs, both terrible and minute, forever. The idea runs: If we forget, we disgrace the victim and allow the perpetrator to go free. But Volf, stirred deeply both by his own trying life situations and abiding faith in Christ, declares we should not allow this false form of eternal remebering to take us away from the work of Christ. Not to seek reconciliation, not to seek forgiveness in its proper way is to fail to understand who Christ, the gracious act of redemption and reconcilliation with the Triune God, and the ultimate eschatological goal Christ draws us towards (this is primary to Volf's understanding of theology in general. Faith in Christ is eschatologicaly pulled forward). The book is accessible and thought provoking. We must let Volf's vision of faith challenge and grow us.

I've just started reading this newest book by Volf, and its every bit as nuanced and sophisticated as "Exclusion and Embrace" and accessible as "Free of Charge." If either of these books grabbed you, you'll want to read this one, too. Hopefully, this be as widely read and acclaimed as Volf's other books, and Eerdmans will issue a paperback edition. If I were back in seminary, I would certainly want this to be on any reading list I received having to do with contemporary Christian ethics and social issues.