The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
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, personal injustices—should be constantly remembered. But Miroslav Volf here proposes the radical idea that letting go of such memories—after a certain point and under certain conditions—may actually be the appropriate course of action. While agreeing with the claim that to remember a wrongdoing is to struggle against it, Volf notes that there are too many ways to remember wrongly, perpetuating the evil committed rather than guarding against it. In this way, “the just sword of memory often severs the very good it seeks to defend.” He argues that remembering rightly has implications not only for the individual but also for the wrongdoer and for the larger community. Volf’s personal stories of persecution offer a compelling backdrop for his search for theological resources to make memories a wellspring of healing rather than a source of deepening pain and animosity. Controversial, thoughtful, and incisively reasoned, The End of Memory begins a conversation hard to ignore.
The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World, 2nd ed. is now available to Pre-Order
Top Highlights
“To triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one. The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated; the second victory, when evil is returned. After the first victory, evil would die if the second victory did not infuse it with new life.” (Page 9)
“imperative to remember truthfully; for if deliverance of the afflicted is to be an act of justice, rather than” (Page 108)
“When we remember the past, it is not only past; it breaks into the present and gains a new lease on life” (Page 21)
“memories do not merely replicate pleasure or pain; they also decisively shape our identities.” (Page 24)
“memory of wrongs suffered is from a moral standpoint dangerously undetermined” (Page 34)
- Title: The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World
- Author: Miroslav Volf
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2006
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Memory › Religious aspects--Christianity; Reconciliation › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9780802829894, 0802829899
- Resource ID: LLS:NDMMRYRVLNTWRLD
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2026-06-17T16:36:32Z
Professor Volf is the founding Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (1996; revised edition, 2019), winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and named one of Christianity Today’s 100 most important religious books of the 20th Century; Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World (2016); The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything (2022), co-authored with Ryan McAnnally-Linz; and, most recently, co-authored with Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most (2023).
A member of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and the Evangelical Church in Croatia, Professor Volf has been involved in international ecumenical dialogues (for instance, with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and interfaith dialogues (including the Muslim and Christian “A Common Word” initiative), as well as a participant in the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. A native of Croatia, he regularly teaches and lectures in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and across North America. Amongst his many invited lectureships, he has given the Dudleian Lecture at Harvard University; the Chavasse Lectures at Oxford University; the Waldenstroem Lectures at Stockholm School of Theology; the Gray Lectures at Duke University; the Stob Lectures at Calvin University; and the Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham. In May 2025, he delivered the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen, UK.