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The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World

Miroslav Volf

4.18 · Rating details · 343 ratings · 41 reviews

Can one forget atrocities? Should one forgive abusers? Ought we not hope for the final reconciliation of all the wronged and all wrongdoers alike, even if it means spending eternity with perpetrators of evil? We live in an age when it is generally accepted that past wrongs - genocides, terrorist attacks, bald personal injustices - should be constantly remembered. But Miros ...more

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Hardcover, 244 pages

Published November 9th 2006 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

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Jul 11, 2010 Dianna P. rated it it was amazing

I don't remember any other book rocking my world like this one did. A complete paradigm shift occurred for me because of it. ...more

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Dec 24, 2020 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pastoral-practical-and-missiologica, theological-and-philosophical-studi

Volf offers a clear, penetrating look at rightly remembering and how justice, redemption and our identity as God's image-bearers informs both remembering traumatic and difficult memories and even how it informs when it is appropriate to forgot such memories. Truly a remarkable work and worth reading for any Christian who has experienced trauma or who works with those who have. Highly recommended. ...more

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Jul 08, 2018 Jackson Brooks rated it it was amazing

Incredibly pastoral as well as philosophical. It not only builds a foundation for a theology of remembrance, but also tears down the idol that memory can sometimes become. Thought provoking and practically challenging

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Jul 04, 2016 Marta rated it liked it

This was equally thought provoking and frustrating. His ideas are interesting, but he's only engaging with philosophers and theologians (and not historians or archivists). I also found him equating (or confusing?) personal memory with societal memory and public history. There's an obvious difference between an individual forgetting a traumatic experience and a society forgetting a problematic past, but he floats between those two situations as though they're the same thing, which was both puzzli ...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Monica rated it liked it

A fascinating topic and the book contains some provocative and helpful ideas for integrating memory, particularly of injustice and trauma, into a Christian framework. However, the prose is rather convoluted / excessively dense (for example significant flaws in his logic are sometimes alluded to in asides but not picked up until much later), and lacks concrete engagement with the implications of Volf's ideas - how to apply the ideas in practical ways in response to injustice. Given how directly t A fascinating topic and the book contains some provocative and helpful ideas for integrating memory, particularly of injustice and trauma, into a Christian framework. However, the prose is rather convoluted / excessively dense (for example significant flaws in his logic are sometimes alluded to in asides but not picked up until much later), and lacks concrete engagement with the implications of Volf's ideas - how to apply the ideas in practical ways in response to injustice. Given how directly the topic could impact lives, that's a major flaw.

The primary weakness is that forgiveness overall is treated almost entirely as an individual act to love one's enemy--even arguing that reconciliation with the enemy is necessary for full healing -- (although Volf acknowledges that this isn't always possible), minimizing the complexity and social embeddedness of others' crimes. Near the end of the book he also acknowledges that wrongdoers rarely name the truth of their crimes and addresses this major flaw with his emphasis on individual reconciliation by "reconciling" with his abuser through the act of imagination.

While reconciling within one's imagination is a helpful tool for therapeutic relief, the book fails to responsibly engage with the questions it raises about our concrete decisions in response to pervasive abusive behavior in social contexts. Egregiously missing from the book is any engagement with the most common examples of such behavior - domestic abuse, emotional abuse, etc., and the havoc this wreaks on families - and the danger of "reconciling". A subtle implication of the book is that reconciliation in most cases should be the goal of the victim, implicitly emphasizing a victim's responsibility to be the primary agents of their oppressors' healing, to be "Christ" to them, failing to equally emphasize the perpetrator's responsibility to turn to Christ. Volf even argues that a victim is prone to be "unjust" to their oppressor by exaggerating their crimes -- subtly and dangerously implying that a wounded person's natural rage "exaggerates" their experience so much that it can legitimately be called an injustice just like the crime - so in effect healing is only possible by the victim "toning down" their 'distorted' pain. These implications minimize the actual divide between oppressor and victim, failing to do justice to the objectively different effects of trauma on a victim, as well as the deep-rooted nature of abusive psychology and mental illness that typically leads to abusive behavior. A responsible engagement with trauma requires a deeper engagement with the pyschology of abuse and the effects of trauma on the body - effects that aren't curable simply by an act of mental volition to remember 'rightly' - than is presented here.

Similarly, Volf fails to deeply engage with the fact that our "enemies" typically benefit from a web of social relationships that support their bad behavior, so his overall portrait of forgiveness is one of therapeutic relief to the person tormented by painful memories and the perpetrator tormented by guilt. This vision lacks practical, actionable ways to respond to violence and abuse.

So overall, despite provocative and at times moving reflections, the book lacks a sustainable vision of Christian community that does justice to the nature of violence and mistreatment of others, one where the community of faith can genuinely embody a place of healing and new beginnings. Instead, it subtly places more burdens on survivors of great evil. A better work on this topic is Gregory Jones' Embodying Forgiveness, which is a more clear and responsible approach, including similar insights as Volf within a much more practical framework. ...more

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May 16, 2019 Jared rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In this work, Volf continues the project begun in “Exclusion and Embrace” and “Free of Charge,” which is to offer a theological account of the idea of Christian forgiveness as it relates to contemporary culture. His specific goal in this work is to discuss the place of the memory of wrongs in the context of forgiveness. Perhaps the simplest way to summarize the argument is as an explanation and defense of the old saw, “forgive and forget,” as an accurate picture of Christian forgiveness.

For Vol In this work, Volf continues the project begun in “Exclusion and Embrace” and “Free of Charge,” which is to offer a theological account of the idea of Christian forgiveness as it relates to contemporary culture. His specific goal in this work is to discuss the place of the memory of wrongs in the context of forgiveness. Perhaps the simplest way to summarize the argument is as an explanation and defense of the old saw, “forgive and forget,” as an accurate picture of Christian forgiveness.

For Volf, the problem to be solved is the fact that, if it means anything, the Cross of Christ means that BOTH victims AND perpetrators can find forgiveness and reconciliation…not just with God, but with one another. This, of course, requires that the wrongs that exist between them must be “done away with.” Volf sets himself to explain, in detail, how this process works in a way that does not violate morality (by gutting the action of its “wrongness”) or justice (by letting the action go unpunished). As one would expect, theologically and ethically, this is a rather involved question.
One move that Volf makes at the beginning is to ground the whole discussion in traumatizing experience he had in the Yugoslavian army of being interrogated by a captain in the security service (known throughout the book as “Captain G”) for anti-Communist sympathies. The accusations were eventually dropped, but the wounds from that experience remained. This book, then, is not some sterile “thought experiment” but a sort of testimony to the way in which Volf has worked through his own status as victim to come to forgive and reconcile with his victimizer. Volf’s honesty about his own struggles provides the work some very necessary “groundedness” to make the discussion relatable and the argument compelling.

Two interrelated points about forgiveness/reconciliation seem to ground the entire work:
1) That forgiveness requires, first of all, full admission of the wrong action on the part of the perpetrator. “Forgive & forget” is often a code-phrase for repression of painful memories which is the precise OPPOSITE of what Christian forgiveness requires. For forgiveness and reconciliation to occur, evil must be fully exposed to light.
2) That forgiveness is a lengthy process that cannot be fully completed until the Final Reconciliation (Volf’s term for the end of human history that encompasses both the “Last Judgment” so popular in Christian eschatology and Volf’s proposed “Final Embrace”).
Within that broad framework, Volf makes a number of other significant points about the forgotten aspects of forgiveness such as, for example, the victim’s tendency to elide their own shortcomings/wrongdoings in their attempt to vilify the perpetrator or the perpetrator’s tendency to avoid confessing the evil of their actions by contextualization. All in all, Volf demonstrates the multitude of ways in which human sinfulness can “derail” the conciliatory process and how the Cross of Christ, when fully understood disallows these shortcuts.

There were a couple elements that caught me by surprise. One was Volf’s approach to the question of “universalism.” Fair warning: there’s a better than fair chance Volf is a universalist. But he attempts to artfully dodge the question by referencing Hans Urs von Balthasar’s “Dare We Hope that All Men Be Saved?” I could wish he would have staked out that ground more clearly, even if, in the end, I would have been forced to disagree with his conclusion. Another surprise was the way in which he demonstrated how the contemporary focus on the need for permanence of memory related to Modernity’s “anthropological” shift. In brief: if identity is found “within” (provided by an individualized sense of purpose) rather than “without” (provided by the communities with which one is associated), then memory becomes identity’s essence—to forget a wrong, then, is to become a “shrunken self” (Volf’s phrase). But the claim of Christianity is that our identity is not found within US but within CHRIST…which is what makes it possible to forgive—and ultimately forget—evils and wrongs.

Volf, as always is remarkably clear, remarkably well- and widely-read, and remarkably practical while not sacrificing theological depth or logical rigor. It is a work both inspiring and convicting, challenging us with a grand vision of the hope of reconciliation that must once again grasp our hearts, if we are to truly see the coming of God’s Kingdom in this broken and violent world.
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Sep 02, 2018 Michael Austin rated it it was amazing

Volf's The End of Memory is not an easy book to read. It is academic theology that engages intensely with other academic theologians and with non-religious philosophers (or, at least with religious philosophers writing about non-religious things). Volf is a rigorous intellectual writing theology within a rigorously intellectual tradition. However, unlike the vast majority of books for which these things are true, this book is actually important. Beneath all of the rigorous theology and academic Volf's The End of Memory is not an easy book to read. It is academic theology that engages intensely with other academic theologians and with non-religious philosophers (or, at least with religious philosophers writing about non-religious things). Volf is a rigorous intellectual writing theology within a rigorously intellectual tradition. However, unlike the vast majority of books for which these things are true, this book is actually important. Beneath all of the rigorous theology and academic philosophy lie questions that matter and that need answers.

Here, if I am reading correctly, is the most important of these questions: How do we stand as a witness to horrible and evil events--both historical (genocide, war crimes, mass murder) and personal (abuse, neglect, assault)--without creating the conditions that cause more horrible and evil events to occur?

This is not an abstract, academic question. It is a necessary avenue of analysis for anyone trying to make sense of the cataclysmic events of the 20th century: the Holocaust, the crimes of Stalin and Mao, the genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and elsewhere. Volf experienced some of these events first hand, as a Croatian theologian living in Yugoslavia as it fragmented and produced a decade of civil war and genocide among its Serbian, Croatian, and Muslim inhabitants. These were events that, most people would say, must be remembered (so that they don't happen again). But they were also events that were caused by people remembering earlier wars, massacres, and genocides.

Memory has been sold to us in the modern world as the key to preventing holocausts. And the rationale for this is rational and important. But memory has also been the cause of holocausts. How do we remember without perpetuating the cycle of retaliatory violence.

It depends, Volf says, on both how, and why, we remember. Remembering correctly is necessary, but not sufficient. We also have to remember purposefully, with the objective of healing, and, ultimately with the objective of redemption and reconciliation. Volf is entirely aware how dangerous it is to even suggest that victims of evil, whether of the world-historical or the intensely purposeful kind, forgive or try to reconcile with the people who inflicted the evil. He does not advocate it, or say that it is always appropriate, or suggest that anybody feel compelled to do it. But he does suggest that it is part of what it means to take the Christian message seriously.

This is the scariest, but also the most beautiful part of The End of Memory. Volf works from the assumption that Christ is real--and that this is not irrelevant to the way that we deal with difficult questions. It means that God loves all of humanity, that people have an identity independent of their suffering, that there really is an afterlife, that the Kingdom of God is possible, and that redemption and atonement are real. He believes that these ideas are true and that they matter, which is a very different thing than believing that they are true but don't matter, because we should just go living our lives as though the otherworldly things that we believe most have nothing to do with how we should approach important thisworldly questions.

The result is a book that is powerful, but not a little bit disturbing. Volf definitely does not say that evil and violence should be forgotten, or repressed, or ignored. They must be remembered, but they must be remembered ethically, in a context that can draw lessons for the future that help people prevent evil and violence--and not in a way that makes more evil and violence inevitable. There is no way to do this without invoking assumptions that are at least broadly theological. We can't just remember that--we have to remember so that. And the purpose to which we dedicate our desire to remember matters a lot. ...more

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May 26, 2019 An Te rated it it was amazing

Reading Professor Volf's book has been a slow-burning revelation. What are we to do when we recall past injustices? Volf is concerned with answering this question here. Volf envisions a way of recollecting the wrongs and how we can do both justice to the wrong and yet maintain it for future posterity. It simply cannot be convey in memories of the self, which is fleeting, subject to bias and fractious.

Volf envisions this. Wrongs are committed but we, in God's resplendent love, welcomes the victim Reading Professor Volf's book has been a slow-burning revelation. What are we to do when we recall past injustices? Volf is concerned with answering this question here. Volf envisions a way of recollecting the wrongs and how we can do both justice to the wrong and yet maintain it for future posterity. It simply cannot be convey in memories of the self, which is fleeting, subject to bias and fractious.

Volf envisions this. Wrongs are committed but we, in God's resplendent love, welcomes the victim and perpetrators to the same table. By affirming our falleness and the beautiful exchange of Christ, we are in blessed union with God (triune) straining forward to what is joyous and good, letting all that is evil wither and die for what it is really is.

For me, it really is a beautiful thing. We are given the momentary and momentous powers to construct good and evil wherever we go. I may have baggage to contend with before becoming a Christian, but in striving to live in Christ, evil is singled-out for what it truly is, parasitic and a deviation in God's goodness (though not completely absent of it for it has a quasi-existence whilst God allows it to be so in the 'inaugurated eschatological' period- I shan't meander on this matter but it could be expanded further...). Thenceforth, I can now affirm Christ's salvific power and identity which affirms God's faithfulness and goodness, no longer strengthening the past hurts and grievances. We will be so captivated by God's presence that past hurts will simply slip out of our minds. In the eschaton, things, as anyone will know who tries to speak on these matters, are less clear. Forgiveness is a divine gift and memory is deeply tied to its operation. However, the mechanisms and purposes remain a mystery to us, as the Incarnation and the Trinity seem to elude human comprehension.

Theory heavy at times, it is a tome worth exploring for anyone who has a mottled past or cannot see eye to eye with another. It is a helpful 'sense-maker' for God's forgiveness. A deeply serious, imaginative and important work. An inchoate work (as ever will be on divine matters this side of heaven) but God has gifted Volf with insights into His embracing character; that as much is what I sense. ...more

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Oct 07, 2019 E. rated it it was amazing

A profound theological exploration of remembering and forgetting.

Volf was at one time a prisoner of the communist forces of his native Yugoslavia, where he underwent interrogation that was a form of psychological torture. What should he do with those memories? What should all people do with memories of pain, trauma, and suffering?

A deeply personal book that draws from the rich wells of the Christian tradition, literature, and philosophy, Volf considers how we should remember and remember well an ...more

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Nov 22, 2017 Timothy Goldsmith rated it really liked it

Volf has had the traumatic experiences required to speak about a topic like this with authority coupled with the academic capacity to look at deep questions with genuine rigour.
I read through this book with the staff from my church. It is sometimes repetitive, but a wonderful book to digest and meditate on.
If you wonder how you might move beyond a traumatic experiences, or whether you should feel guilty for "moving beyond" something, this could be a helpful book to read. ...more

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Sep 11, 2017 Jeremiah rated it really liked it

This was probably one of the best books I would NOT recommend. He asks and answers his questions about remembering rightly wonderfully, but it is his writing style, what I call a casual PhD dissertation, that punches you in the gut just a bit in its readability.

It's good, but find someone who has already read it and get the CliffNotes version from them. ...more

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Apr 15, 2018 John Buchanan rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, christian

Didn't read it all. profound ideas. ...more

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Dec 29, 2018 Gordon Scrimgeour rated it it was amazing

Best read of 2018.
Much to process not only pertaining to bad events.

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Oct 02, 2020 5greenway rated it really liked it

4.5. An engaging, thoughtful exploration of what divine forgiveness/reconciliation might mean. Lots to chew over here, ideas to return to.

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Aug 03, 2011 James Korsmo rated it it was amazing

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 "Ca 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 forgetting. We should strive toward and look forward to a grace-filled world in which wrongs are fully acknowledged and then forgotten. In light of Jesus' death on the cross, a death which dealt with all evil, we look forward in hope to a time when that grace will embrace our situation. Volf is careful to remind that this forgetting is always on the other side of acknowledgement, forgiveness, and reconciliation, but it is still an end. We should (though it is not easy) long for a time when perpetrator and victim can come together without those labels, when a new and reconcilied relationship has forgotten completely those earlier roles, and draws them together as friends and companions. This is Volf's vision of the life to come, on the other side of the final judgment, a life that we can begin to experience here and now through a drive for reconciliation (as opposed to retribution).

Volf's End of Memory is an honest wrestling with the true nature of Christianity, the atonement, and grace. It helps paint a fuller picture of grace by looking beyond what grace means for me personally to a look at what grace should mean for my enemies, as well. He makes a convincing case for the importance of memory, a truthful and just type of memory, but then qualifies this memory as provisional. We instead look toward the end of memory, that time when all things will be made new, all wrongs remembered and then forgotten, and all eyes turned from past hurts to fulfillment and joy in Jesus Christ. It is a great and challenging vision of a grace-filled life. And is also a deep reflection what shapes our identity (hint: it's not our history, though that plays a role; who we are is ultimately grounded in God.) ...more

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Apr 29, 2019 Cale Little rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The End of Memory will be a book I’ll always remember

Thoughtful, philosophical, theological. I’m overwhelmed at the weight of such questions and the insight into the inner struggle to forgive and for justice to be served. Doing so simultaneously is right. I come away challenged and inspired!

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May 29, 2013 David rated it liked it

Miroslav Volf sets his sights on the command to love one's enemies, the sternest test of Christian obedience, in The End of Memory. Volf skillfully weaves a personal story onto a scholarly study once again as he did in Exclusion and Embrace. The basis of his take on loving one's enemies for the purposes of this book is his experience of being unjustly interrogated and branded as a subversive rebel by the Yugoslavian military. As Volf works his way through the problem of reconciliation with the e Miroslav Volf sets his sights on the command to love one's enemies, the sternest test of Christian obedience, in The End of Memory. Volf skillfully weaves a personal story onto a scholarly study once again as he did in Exclusion and Embrace. The basis of his take on loving one's enemies for the purposes of this book is his experience of being unjustly interrogated and branded as a subversive rebel by the Yugoslavian military. As Volf works his way through the problem of reconciliation with the enemy, he strains toward his own forgiveness of his interrogator, "Captain G."

Reconciliation is a problem which is insoluble at many points. I've rated this book much lower than his other book (3 stars, contrary to first impressions is actually a good rating...indicating that one has liked a book) because there are too many unresolved gaps, some of which seem like yawning chasms. At some points, Volf seems to say Christ is the supreme reconciling figure between wrongdoer and wronged almost to the point where the offender does not have any responsibility of mending brokenness with his victim (Matt 5:23,24 kept lighting up in my mind at these times). At other points, he requires their reconciliation as a precondition for the "world of perfect love" which is a view I personally favor but is problematic (or is it?) in that it allows for unforgivable sins, i.e. in cases of recalcitrant offenders who deny their own guilt. Volf recognized the difficulty wrapped up in the difference between offender and victim, and he attempts to soften it by blurring the line of distinction between them. This approach is a stretch and almost seems like it creates more puzzling effects. This is one among other problems that emerge. But I think all of these difficulties are to be expected in pursuing the radical inversion demanded by the command to love one's enemies.

There are a lot of great points made on the nature of memory and, more importantly, forgetting throughout this book. The complex binary structure between memory and forgetting and its implications on human identity is an intriguing topic of reflection. My personal favorite essay in this book is "Defenders of Forgetting" where Volf compares the concepts of forgetting of three thinkers, Freud, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard. This is a read which definitely demands an open mind. A lot of what is in it is hard to swallow, but this just might be an effect of the power of loving one's enemies. Its radical nature tests the limits of our own hardened concepts, most notably our idea of justice. ...more

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Mar 07, 2016 Donna rated it really liked it

Shelves: trauma, religion

Another book that brings you to really think about individuals dealing with the memory of wrongs and traumas and how their faith can help them. Some quotes I liked:

“We are not just shaped by memories; we ourselves shape the memories that shape us. And since we do so, the consequences are significant; for because we shape our memories, our identities cannot consist simply in what we remember. The question of how we remember also comes into play.”

“As trauma literature consistently notes, the heali Another book that brings you to really think about individuals dealing with the memory of wrongs and traumas and how their faith can help them. Some quotes I liked:

“We are not just shaped by memories; we ourselves shape the memories that shape us. And since we do so, the consequences are significant; for because we shape our memories, our identities cannot consist simply in what we remember. The question of how we remember also comes into play.”

“As trauma literature consistently notes, the healing of wounded psyches involves not only remembering traumatic experiences; it must also include integrating the retrieved memories into a broader pattern of one’s life story, either by making sense of the traumatic experiences or by tagging them as elements gone awry in one’s life. Personal healing happens not so much by remembering traumatic events and their accompanying emotions as by interpreting memories and inscribing them into a larger pattern of meaning- stitching them into the patcheork quilt of one’s identity, as it were.”

“As victims seek to protect themselves, they are not immune to becoming perpetrators. Indeed, as the deft and gloomy aphorist Emil M. Cioran has observed, the great persecutors are often ‘recruited among the martyrs not quite beheaded.’ The memory of their own persecution makes them see dangers lurking even where there are none; it leads them to exaggerate dangers that do exist and overreact with excessive violence or inappropriate preventative measures so as to ensure their own safety. Victims will often become perpetrators precisely on account of their memories. It is because they remember past victimization that they feel justified in committing present violence. Or rather, it is because they remember their past victimization that they justify as rightful self-protection what to most observers looks like violence born of intolerance or even hatred. So easily does the protective shield of memory morph into a sword of violence.”

“True love dissolves the ‘humiliating feeling’ evoked by being forgiven.” ...more

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Jul 16, 2013 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology, theology, philosophy, non-fiction

"Seekers of truth, as distinct from alleged possessors of truth, will employ "double vision" - they will give others the benefit of the doubt, they will inhabit imaginatively the world of others, and they will endeavor to view events in question from the perspective of others, not just their own. "(p57-Ch 3 Speaking Truth Practicing Grace)."

Excellent Book; Timely. Realistic in its theology and praxis.

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Can one forget atrocities? Should one forgive abusers? Ought we not hope for the fin ...more

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Sep 14, 2016 z added it

- there are some real gems in this book, particularly about analyses of biblical justice and the connection between memory and forgiveness, as well as the rot of bitterness which is an inability to forgive as God does. Also of interest is the connections drawn between Forgiveness and Gift, which is free to receive.
- "Forgivers forgo the punishment of persons who deserve it and release them from the bonds of their guilt. Of course, to obtain this release wrongdoers must receive forgiveness of the ...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Joseph Sverker added it

Shelves: theology

Volf has the ability to write from within a rather evangelical stand point yet be extra ordinarily provoking against cherished beliefs. If someone really shows the scandal of the cross and how extreme the consequences are of the forgiveness God has given through Christ it is Volf. He takes his own life as a starting point which bring credibility to this work and then shows how wrongdoings should be non-remembred. I particularly like his thoughts on the world to come as like being wrapped complet ...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Karen is currently reading it

This is a book everyone should read. Volf writes about how we deal with the wrongs committed not just against us but against humanity (the Holocaust, the Killing Fields, etc). His basic thesis is that evil lives when a wrong is perpetrated against us. That evil would die with that act if we would let it, but we don't. We allow it to live on in us either in the form of self-loathing (how could I let this happen to me?) or in the form of vengeance or both. But since it isn't wise to forget our own ...more

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May 24, 2012 Dwight Davis rated it it was amazing

This is a brilliant work of psychological theology. Volf argues for a correct remembering of wrongs done to us in order that we may enact what he calls "non-remembrance." Volf builds this theory on his own experience of interrogation in Yugoslavia and the wrongs done to him by Captain G. The book ends in a beautiful imagined reconciliation with his interrogator. Volf also engages with the work of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Freud on the necessity of forgetting and shows how the logic of forgetfu ...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Amy Ivey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, suffering

I highly recommend this book. We have all been wronged by others, and we have all wronged others. We live in a fallen world where sin and its effects are realities. Remembering wrongs and the resultant hurts and wounds to our souls are natural consequences which can engulf us if not addressed. "As Christians, we have no option when it comes to reconciling, since failing to reconcile with fellow human beings for whom Christ died to reconcile them to God and to each other is to reject God's work o ...more

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Dec 19, 2015 Bryn Clark rated it really liked it

At worst this book was redundant and perhaps a little too wordy. At best, it wonderfully depicted the tension that comes with remembrance in a world of injustice. Volf draws from his own experience as well as the writings of everyone from Dante to Elie Wiesel to ask how we, as Christians living in a violent world, are to react/act towards injustice. Volf draws on the conviction that retributive justice denies the justice of God: "The first victory (for evil) happens when an evil deed is perpetra ...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Sarah by: Rabbi Alan Brill

I really should not have taken a 2 month break while reading this book. However, I think I needed to digest and apply what I had read up to that time. Memory is such an amazing concept to me, and the more I think about it, the more I understand we need it to relate to EVERYTHING: ourselves, community, God, the past, the present, the future. Yet at the same time, it's so notoriously unreliable. I wrote a little more about it here at the Wheelhouse Review:

http://www.thewheelhousereview.com/20...

Th ...more

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Jul 28, 2007 Kent rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone seriously interested in redeeming the memory.

An absolute must read for the serious student of human transformation.

Every new creation in Christ must deal with memory. Positive memories may blind one to the great opportunities of today and tomorrow and negative memories may paralyze the soul in the past.

When I meet a person in heaven, from whom I have received much pain, will I remember the situation, the pain, and the person?

In brief, Volf makes it clear that in a world of perfect and complete love, one may remember but the memory simply w ...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Naomi rated it really liked it

Shelves: christianity, ethics

How we remember justly and mercifully and truthfully matters. Miroslav Volf examines and questions some of our larger culturally cherished notions of what is just, merciful, and truthful in remembering. Whether you agree in whole or in part will be partly theological, partly personal, and partly whether you agree with his reasoning. An interesting addition to the works on ethics and memory, and a text with which to dialogue, particularly with other works on ethics and memory from other religious ...more

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Aug 08, 2016 Milton Brasher-Cunningham rated it really liked it

Golf takes on the task of describing the relationship of memory, faith, and forgiveness, which is not an easy one. He is coming from a specifically Christian perspective, though much of what he says could have a wider appeal. He talks about what it means to remember "rightly" and "justly." Our capacity for forgiveness swings as much on how we remember as much as what we recall. He gave me a lot to think about. ...more

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Mar 25, 2014 John rated it really liked it

A moving book, at many points. I don't want to say too much about his theological perspective--it irritates me sometimes. However, he is very apt in describing all the possible ways in which we refuse to judge others, and ourselves, rightly. Very good on the complexities of memory, and a very moving personal story too. ...more

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About Miroslav Volf

Miroslav Volf

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Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. “One of the most celebrated theologians of our time,” (Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury), Volf is a leading expert on religion and conflict. His recent books include Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Persisting Enmities, and ...more

Books by Miroslav Volf

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“Through my memory of the Passion, God can "purify" my memory of wrongs suffered because my identity stems neither from the wrongdoing done to me, which would require the perpetual accusation of my wrongdoer, nor from my own (false) innocence, which would lead me to (illegitimate) self-justification.” — 2 likes

“To remember a wrongdoing is to struggle against it.” — 0 likes

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