Memory, Tradition, And Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity

✍ Scribed by Alan Kirk (ed.), Tom Thatcher (ed.)

• Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 293
• Series: Semeia Studies issue 52
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Social and cultural memory theory examines the ways communities and individuals reconstruct and commemorate their pasts in light of shared experiences and current social realities. Drawing on the methods of this emerging field, this volume both introduces memory theory to biblical scholars and restores the category “memory” to a preeminent position in research on Christian origins. In the process, the volume challenges current approaches to research problems in Christian origins, such as the history of the Gospel traditions, the birth of early Christian literature, ritual and ethics, and the historical Jesus. The essays, taken in aggregate, outline a comprehensive research agenda for examining the beginnings of Christianity and its literature and also propose a fundamentally revised model for the phenomenology of early Christian oral tradition, assess the impact of memory theory upon historical Jesus research, establish connections between memory dynamics and the appearance of written Gospels, and assess the relationship of early Christian commemorative activities with the cultural memory of ancient Judaism.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Frontpage......Page 4
ISBN 9781589831490......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
ABBREVIATIONS......Page 8
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL MEMORY......Page 12
JESUS TRADITION AS SOCIAL MEMORY......Page 36
CHRISTIAN ORIGINS: HISTORICAL TRUTH AND SOCIAL MEMORY......Page 54
PROMINENT PATTERNS IN THE SOCIAL MEMORY OF JESUS AND FRIENDS......Page 68
WHY JOHN WROTE A GOSPEL: MEMORY AND HISTORY IN AN EARLY CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY......Page 90
THE STORY OF “THE WOMAN WHO ANOINTED JESUS” AS SOCIAL MEMORY: A METHODOLOGICAL PROPOSAL FOR THE STUDY OF TRADITION AS MEMORY......Page 110
THE LOCUS FOR DEATH: SOCIAL MEMORY AND THE PASSION NARRATIVES......Page 130
CHRISTIAN COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND PAUL’S KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS......Page 140
COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND HEBREWS 11: OUTLINING A NEW INVESTIGATIVE FRAMEWORK......Page 162
EARLY JEWISH BIRTH PROPHECY STORIES AND WOMEN’S SOCIAL MEMORY......Page 184
THE MEMORY OF VIOLENCE AND THE DEATH OF JESUS IN Q......Page 202
READING THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS AS A REPOSITORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN COMMUNAL MEMORY......Page 218
THE WORKS OF MEMORY: CHRISTIAN ORIGINS AS MNEMOHISTORY - A RESPONSE......Page 232
JESUS IN FIRST-CENTURY MEMORY - A RESPONSE......Page 260
WORKS CONSULTED......Page 274
CONTRIBUTORS......Page 292