Sankofa

At work I receive a magazine called In Trust. Its target audience is CEOs and board members of theological seminaries. The following quote is from one recent article by Anna M. Robbins, "The mission of seminary in an age of nostalgia" (Summer, 2020, pp. 14-17):

The Ghanaian concept of sankofa is one example of [the reminder that we can only go forward]--bringing the wisdom of the past to bear on the present in order to face the future. And it is important to look back so we can understand how we got to where were are now.

I think it is interesting that the author, whom I presume is a Christian, needed to look to Ghana for a word to describe what has traditionally been called "tradition." I suppose we sometimes need to look at things from an unusual angle to see them rightly--like Chesterton's use of the grotesque. Or, the usual word has become dead to so many people, or turns them off. The need to distance themselves from standard, classical expressions is endemic. 

I don't, however, see how you can keep the bridge with the past intact while distancing yourself from it at the same time. 

She should have easily said:

The Christian concept of tradition is one example of [the reminder that we can only go forward]--bringing the wisdom of the past to bear on the present in order to face the future. And it is important to look back so we can understand how we got to where were are now.