But there needs to be a critique of the past. It seems that the critique of the past comes from the future breaking into the now. In the dialogue between Jesus and Nathaniel the tenses of the action are illustrative. Nathaniel, confronted, confesses and worships. It is as if the future, by its very nature, is uncertain and demands a confession of faith.
Faith is the critique of the past and gives meaning to the present.
It is faith in relationship to the saving acts not only of the past but to the same acts in an uncertain future, which is as yet in God's hand. It is faith in a specific and particular God. For here we have the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in dialogue with human beings about God's will for their lives. To discover that will required that the sacred memories of the past in tradition, personal experience and national expectation come into dialogue with the divine, uncertain certainty in Jesus. It was in this that the saving acts were validated and the quest was at an end.