Commentary: The theological moment of the life story.

Abstract

College of the Holy CrossThis article, a commentary on John Manoussakis's (2017) book The Ethics of Time: A Phenomenology and Hermeneutics of Change, has as its primary focus the process by which the reconstruction of the past, via memory and narrative, can lead to the reconstruction of the future, constituting a movement in the direction of the good. Drawing on a variety of literary texts and significant personal experience, it is argued herein that certain relationships frequently thought be either independent of, or even at odds with, one another-notably, the relationships between recollection and development, evil and good, and affliction and beauty-are indissolubly connected. By recognizing these connections, we may be better poised to discern both the centrality of time in understanding the ideas at hand and what might cautiously be considered the theological moment of the life story.