"Do This in Remembrance of Me": Memory, Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Embodied Remembrance of God in Liturgical Action

Thursday, 7 March, 4:00pm – IRC-HPP Seminar – “Do This in Remembrance of Me” – Buki Fatona, University of Oxford

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In this seminar, I explore implications of a constructivist model of memory for liturgical theology. Recent findings in cognitive neuroscience challenge the classical model of memory in philosophy as a storage device wherein memories are imprinted from experience and reproduced when remembering. It appears, however, that remembering past events consists in active (re)constructions in the present in a similar manner and via the same mechanisms as imagining the future. This means, counterintuitively perhaps, that one can successfully simulate memory of an event without a prior experience of that event. Further, as I argue and drawing on an enactivist theory of cognition, active (re)constructions of the past in memory are generated via an organism’s embodied interactions with, and navigations of, its environment. A constructivist enactivist model of memory has hitherto unexplored implications for liturgical theology. In exploring these implications, I go on to argue that anamnesis—that is, the liturgical action of celebrating the Eucharist - in remembrance of Christ — is better explained by a constructivist-enactivist model of memory than by the classical model.

BUKI FATONA is nearing completion of a DPhil at the University of Oxford in Theology, specialising in Science and Religion. Her research brings together her degrees in Microbiology (BSc); Theology (BA); and Epistemology, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science (MSc). In her work, she examines memory systems in antiquity (Aristotle’s); medieval period (Augustine’s and Thomas Aquinas’) via the lens of contemporary cognitive neuroscience. Her work draws on her knowledge of, and passion for: classics; ancient and medieval science and philosophy of mind; contemporary philosophy of memory and cognitive neuroscience.

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This event is organised by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion in collaboration with the Humane Philosophy Project, with sponsorship from the John Templeton Foundation and the University of Warsaw.