Bearing witness: hope for the unseen

Beginning with an identification of the ethical and political ambivalence surrounding hope, this essay considers whether an analysis of the activity of bearing witness to truth could offer a theoretical framework for thinking about hope differently. Specifically it argues that hope can be taken as a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jones, Tamsin 1974- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2016]
In: Political theology
Year: 2016, Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 137-150
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Hope / Attest / Truth commission / Truth
IxTheo Classification:VA Philosophy
VB Hermeneutics; Philosophy
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Beginning with an identification of the ethical and political ambivalence surrounding hope, this essay considers whether an analysis of the activity of bearing witness to truth could offer a theoretical framework for thinking about hope differently. Specifically it argues that hope can be taken as a discipline, or practice, one which is both required for, and enacted in, the act of bearing witness. Through a consideration of the process of bearing witness in Truth and Reconciliation Commissions responding to national and intergenerational trauma, the essay explores the way in which bearing witness is a fundamentally hopeful action in so far as it ceaselessly seeks to speak to the truth of an event while acknowledging the inability to ever fully capture that event in words.
ISSN:1462-317X
Contains:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2016.1161300