Social Memory Theory And Lukan Theology: Ancient Jewish And Early Christian Memory In Acts 7

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake CHRISTIAN
2020 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-226
Author(s):  
Simon Butticaz

AbstractThis article aims at describing the Lukan project by applying – in the wake of other scholars – social memory theories to Luke’s double work. In particular, it argues that the type of memory and its criteria defined by Jan Assmann on the basis of the Deuteronomy can help explain the nature of the narrative composed by the auctor ad Theophilum as well as its originality in an early Christian context marked by a proliferation of books and other traditions of the origins of the Church (cf. Luke 1:1a.2.4).


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-89
Author(s):  
Jordan J. Ryan

A significant re-evaluation of the historiographical methods and approaches used in historical Jesus research has been underway in recent years. Some scholars have begun to look to social memory theory for a way forward. Although social memory theory provides some valuable insights, a solid methodological foundation is still lacking. The intention of this article is to advance the discussion by drawing attention to R.G. Collingwood’s contributions to the philosophy of history and historiography in The Idea of History (1946). In particular, I will discuss his historiographical principles of inference, evidence, question and answer, historical imagination, along with his critique of ‘scissors-and-paste’. These principles have the potential to form the foundation of a theoretically grounded historiographical practice in Jesus research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61
Author(s):  
Andrew Gregory

This review essay considers the use of social memory theory in two monographs on the gospels, and the extent to which that theory aids their arguments and conclusions. In the case of Jesus’ Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee, by Chris Keith, I argue that the author uses social memory theory to provide a helpful account of what historians do, but that his conclusion could stand without explicit appeal to his theoretical understanding. In the case of Q in Matthew: Ancient Media, Memory, and Early Scribal Transmission of the Jesus Tradition, by Alan Kirk, I argue that his use of social memory theory, alongside his account of individual neurobiological memory and cognitive processes, is a vital part of the argument that he presents.


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeba Crook

This article explores the effects of cognitive and social memory theory on the quest for the historical Jesus. It is not the case that all memory is hopelessly unreliable, but it is the case that it commonly is. Memory distortion is disturbingly common, and much worse, there is no way to distinguish between memories of actual events and memories of invented events. The Gospel of Matthew was used to illustrate this very difficulty. This article also draws attention to the fact that although numerous criteria have been developed, refined and used extensively in order to distinguish between original Jesus material and later church material, those criteria have long been unsatisfactory, and most recently, because of the effects of thinking about memory theory and orality, have been revealed to be bankrupt. Since memory theory shows that people are unable to differentiate accurate memory from inaccurate and wholly invented memory, and since the traditional quest criteria do not accomplish what they were intended to, this article argues that scholarship about Jesus has been forced into a new no quest.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 143-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley E. Porter ◽  
Hughson T. Ong

This article examines and responds to the arguments made by Paul Foster in a recent article in jshj regarding social-memory theory, orality, and the Fourth Gospel, where he argues that recent research in these areas are dead-ends for historical Jesus research. We do not necessarily wish to defend the research he criticizes, but we respond to Foster by pointing out some of the limitations in his analysis and provide further comments to move discussion of these research areas forward. Our comments address his assumption that form- and redaction-criticism accomplish the purposes that he envisions for historical Jesus research and a number of other problematic arguments he raises regarding each of these areas.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-97
Author(s):  
Anthony Le Donne

Zeba Crook argues that there is an emerging consensus that the Gospels are reliable historical narratives by those to have applied ‘memory’ theories to historical Jesus research. Crook argues that this emerging consensus betrays a selective reading of research done on ‘memory distortion’ in interdisciplinary study. This essay demonstrates that Crook misunderstands and misrepresents social memory theory both in and outside Jesus studies. A better understanding would have properly represented the spectrum from theoretical ‘presentism’ to ‘continuitism’ in memory applications/adaptations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-337
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Elder

This article introduces and overviews New Testament media criticism. Media criticism is an emerging biblical methodology that encompasses four related fields: orality studies, social memory theory, performance criticism, and the Bible in modern media. The article addresses the methodological foundations of these fields and reviews recent contributions in each of them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-454
Author(s):  
Jens Schröter

This article argues that the social memory approach makes a significant contribution to the interpretation of the early gospel tradition. This approach helps to overcome an anachronistic distinction between ‘canonical’ and ‘non-canonical’ (or ‘apocryphal’) Gospels by highlighting the way Jesus was portrayed in various Gospels of the first and second century. Early Christian Gospels in general presuppose the post-Easter perspective on Jesus as a divine figure, but depict his activity and teaching in different ways. A closer look at the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Peter demonstrates how these Gospels take up and continue perspectives which can be observed already in the earlier Gospels in their own ways. Thereby they provide glimpses of different social and theological contexts of second-century Christianity.


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