FROM PROTESTING TO ATTESTING



"However radical evil may be, it is not as profound as goodness.”

"I would say that the question of sin has been displaced from the centre by a question that is perhaps more serious—the question of meaning and meaninglessness, of the absurd... We are heirs to a civilization that has in fact killed God, in other words that has caused absurdity and meaninglessness to prevail over meaning, and this gives rise to a deep protest.

I use this word “protest,” which is very close to “attest.” I would say that attesting follows from protesting, that nothingness, the absurd, death, are not the last word. That relates to the question of goodness because goodness is not only the response to evil, but it is also the response to meaninglessness. In protest there is the word testis, witness: you pro-test before you can at-test...

Protest is still negative: you say no to no. And then you begin to say yes to yes. There is thus a seesaw movement from protesting to attesting. And I think that it comes about through prayer..."

Paul Ricoeur