Contesting confessions: Connolly's Augustinian Imperative and Bakhtin's dialogical imperative

Abstract

While applauding Connolly's post-secular pluralism and objection to demonizing others, this article finds undialogical and ahistorical his account of “Augustine's Imperative.” Modern Augustinians should be consulted, notably Barth on God's time and predestination and Tillich on the demonic. Bakhtin's dialogical reading of confessional discourse calls for a hermeneutics, not only of suspicion or retrieval but of the peace which passes all understanding.