B I B L I O N - ENGLISH VERSION
even though it is such a painful one. After that Irish that have not forgotten the violent con-
day memorials were built, and measures were frontations between Catholics and Protestants,
taken so that an act of terrorism such as that Jews that have not forgotten the terror of the
one would never take place again. The day Holocaust, and so one. No one dares to forget.
itself became an official day of mourning
Miroslav Volf is not a stranger to tragedy.
and remembrance – the Patriot Day. I doubt He too went through very rough times in his
anyone could forget what happened with all life, and this book is partly based on one of
this, even if that person wanted to forget. his worst years. In the communist regime of
Nonetheless, there is one
Yu g o s l av i a , t h e t h e o -
question that goes almost
logian was called to
unnoticed with all this em-
ser ve in the militar y at
phasis in not forgetting: Why
Mostar, where he spent a
not forget? Why continue to
year being constantly inter-
remember such a bitter and
rogated. It was one of the
harsh event to us? What is the
most scarring experiences in
final purpose of keeping this
the life of the Croatian theo-
wretched memory alive? Is
logian, whose connections
it simply to remember those
to religion and to capitalist
who perished? Is it to forgive
America made him a suspect
this uncanny offense? Or is it
of espionage and subversion,
to perpetuate the fear and the
and subsequently a target to
violence? While most people
extensive and dehumanizing
agree we shouldn’t forget
“talks” with one of the
such a dire atrocity, public
ex-Yugoslav officials. Volf
THE END OF MEMORY
opinion is not as unanimous
talks about the way the cap-
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
as to why we shouldn’t forget.
tain made that year a living
This is one of the reasons why several parts hell to him on this book, and how he un-
of world face a political and/or social crisis to- dermined Volf ’s trust in his comrades as he
day: ex-Yugoslavs that have not forgotten the sought evidence to incriminate the theologian.
brutalities of the 90’s, African-Americans that
Nevertheless, The End of Memory is not
have not forgotten the times of segregation, just a recounting of the torment Volf went
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