Dziedināana Un Izlīgums Totalitāras Pagātnespārvarēanā1: Healing and reconciliation in overcoming a totalitarian past.
The twentieth century has deeply wounded many nations, including Latvia. The article "Healing and reconciliation in overcoming a totalitarian past" examines remembrance as an important element in the process of social reconciliation and healing of past trauma. By pursuing answers to the qu...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Latvian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
LU Akadēmiskais apgāds
2019
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| In: |
Cel̜š
Year: 2019, Issue: 70, Pages: 90-104 |
| Further subjects: | B
SOCIAL facts
B Social processes B LATVIA B Twentieth Century B Reconciliation B Healing B SOVIET Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti B Collective Memory |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The twentieth century has deeply wounded many nations, including Latvia. The article "Healing and reconciliation in overcoming a totalitarian past" examines remembrance as an important element in the process of social reconciliation and healing of past trauma. By pursuing answers to the questions of why and how to remember, the author seeks to define the theological aspects of the social phenomenon of remembrance. Reconciliation is a central concept in the Judeo-Christian worldview, and the article is focused on practices of public remembrance within the framework of Christian liturgy. For this purpose, it examines two relevant contemporary public acts of remembrance in Latvia, which have addressed polarizing societal issues in relation to the former Soviet regime, specifically, the past collaboration with the KGB, which also affected the Church and the annual commemoration of May 8/9 with different, even conflicting, narratives. In both described public events, Christian liturgy was offered as an instrument of healing, inclusion and reconciliation by creating a platform for individual and collective memory narratives and through emphasizing that the power of an authentic testimony of forgiveness and redemption cannot be replaced by any rituals of commemoration. In conclusion, the notions of healing and reconciliation used in the public discourse in Latvia require a greater conceptual clarity, and it includes the field of theology. The Church is also a "wounded healer", which is undergoing the process of truth seeking and evaluation of its past collaboration with the Soviet regime. The process of overcoming an unjust past is difficult and slow. Still, many theologians emphasize that without redeeming and positively integrating the painful past into the cultural memory, it is impossible for a nation to move towards a just, open and inclusive society. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Cel̜š
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.22364/cl.70.05 |