{"id":1731,"date":"2006-12-29T02:30:49","date_gmt":"2006-12-29T02:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/friday-is-for-friends-23.html"},"modified":"2006-12-29T02:30:49","modified_gmt":"2006-12-29T02:30:49","slug":"friday-is-for-friends-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/friday-is-for-friends-23.html","title":{"rendered":"Friday is for Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are two uses of memory according to the 5th chp of Miroslav Volf&#8217;s <em>The End of Memory<\/em>. There is literal memory and exemplary memory. What we do with our memories is what matters most &#8212; do we &#8220;do&#8221; literal or exemplary with our memory? <!--more|inline--><br \/>\n<em>Literal <\/em>memory constructs a plausible (even truthful) narrative of injustice in order to create personal well-being. <em>Exemplary <\/em>memory constructs a narrative of injustice in order to create justice in this world; it finds &#8220;lessons.&#8221;<br \/>\nHow, for instance, do we remember the churches we grew up in? Do we remember them literally &#8212; to prove ourselves right &#8212; or in an exemplary fashion &#8212; to help establish an even better church?<br \/>\nVolf observes that it is not simple: even if we are committed to exemplary memory, do we abuse the memory in order to create a reactive reality? We tend to blur the victim and the victimizer and we at times find it difficult to know which lesson to draw from our memory.<br \/>\nHere&#8217;s a big, big point: exemplary memory only works when memory is saturated into a larger narrative so that we can develop a principled opposition to injustice, so that the exemplary lesson is a just lesson.<br \/>\nHow to do this? There are four elements in an exemplary memory, and he draws these from the Jewish and Christian practice of remembering the Exodus and the Lord&#8217;s Supper.<br \/>\n1. Identity: Exodus and Cross memories shape identity.<br \/>\n2. Community: Exodus and Cross emerge from and shape a community.<br \/>\n3. Future: Exodus and Cross are not only memory but they frame the future.<br \/>\n4. God: Exodus and Cross are not just social events, but God&#8217;s intervention and promise.<br \/>\nVolf has now led us to this: for memories to be redemptive, they have to be memories that &#8212; like Exodus and Cross &#8212; are memories shaped by a larger Jewish or Christian narrative that gives shape to how we learn to remember injustices.<br \/>\nNext week: no Friday is for Friends. We remain friends, of course, but we&#8217;ll be in transit from Ixtapa to Chicago. I&#8217;ll resume in two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are two uses of memory according to the 5th chp of Miroslav Volf&#8217;s The End of Memory. There is literal memory and exemplary memory. What we do with our memories is what matters most &#8212; do we &#8220;do&#8221; literal or exemplary with our memory?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/friday-is-for-friends-23.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are two uses of memory according to the 5th chp of Miroslav Volf&#8217;s The End of Memory. There is literal memory and exemplary memory. What we do with our memories is what matters most &#8212; do we &#8220;do&#8221; literal or exemplary with our memory?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/friday-is-for-friends-23.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-29T02:30:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"xscot mcknight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/friday-is-for-friends-23.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed","og_description":"There are two uses of memory according to the 5th chp of Miroslav Volf&#8217;s The End of Memory. 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