Theology of Memory: Religious and Historical Aspects

The article discusses the issue of the theological understanding of interrelation between history and memory, and suggests understanding of memory in the perspective of oikonomia. Memory is considered as a condition for the unity of history, and the key hypothesis is the thesis that spiritual and sacred foundations of memory are the main resource allowing memory to structure history. The key moment of the unity of history turns out to be the memory of the Church, the memory of believers, which allows historical epochs to gain an unbreakable cord in the unity of the action in the church. The experience of sacred memory appears as a marker highlighting the spiritual proximity of historical locations, as an experience overcoming the disrupted mosaic of history. The article also examines the interrelation between religious faith and memory, and suggests a spatial scenography of memory since the history of spatial fixation techniques of memory starts acting precisely in the format of sacred theological memory. Using the example of the “theory of places” by P. Nora and other modern researchers, the conclusion is made that theological memory built around the name of God is possible, and that it is necessary to build a theological concept that will be based on the ability of theological memory to overcome the fragmentation of historical existence.