Memory as a Burden and Memory as a Gift: A Theological Perspective on Approaching the Past in the Post-Communist Countries
2009
Abstract
This article applies J.B. Metz?s analysis of memory to the problem of constructing identity of a ?victim? and an identity of ?those who did not fail? in the Post-Communist countries.
The author proposes that both constructions miss an eschatological perspective and a messianic hope. As a counterpart she develops a kind of reconciled remembering, where a desire to dominate memory either by guilt or by self-justice is renounced, and instead we allow the attitude towards the past as well as a prospect of the present and the future to be free and generous towards others, towards ourselves as well as towards God.