Memory and Memories in Early Christianity

Abstract

Biblical scholars have come to appreciate that social memory theory can inform historians about the development of the early Christian movement. This contribution is recognized in Memory and Memories in Early Christianity, which consists of papers delivered at a 2016 conference on memory in early Christianity held at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne. The authors employ the concepts of theorists, such as Jan Assman, to hypothesize how cultural memories were created for and utilized by early Christians.The book is divided into four sections. In the first, “Memory Studies and Nascent Christianity,” Sandra Huebenthal’s essay “‘Frozen Moments’: Early Christianity through the Lens of Social Memory Theory,” discusses how the “collective memory” of the first Christian community became ossified over time into a “cultural memory” of the later church. In “Remembering and Writing: Their Substantial Differences,” Adriana Destro and Mauro Pesce describe writing as a creative act. They argue that scholars, such as Bauckham, who appeal to the influence of “eyewitnesses,” misunderstand the “nature of a written text” (p. 48), which itself creates new memory. These insights are further supported by Jens Schröter in “Memory and Memories in Early Christianity: The Remembered Jesus as a Test Case.” Schröter appeals to Assman’s definition of historical memory as being a reconstruction of a remembered past rather than of the actual past (p. 85). Thus, the Gospel tradition is the record less of the acts of the historical Jesus than it is of the church’s memory about the importance of Jesus. The two are not identical.The second section, “Memory, Authority and Modalities,” begins with an essay by Simon Butticaz, “The Transformation of ‘Collective Memory’ in Early Christianity as Reflected in the Letters of Paul.” Butticaz asserts that Paul’s letters are not only artifacts of apostolic memory but, in the deutero-Pauline tradition, the apostle himself becomes the guarantor of apostolic tradition. Judith Lieu, in “Letters and the Construction of Early Christian Memory,” observes how letters as well as the Gospel traditions provided a useful means for preservation of Christian memory. Finally, Christoph Markschies, in “Erinnerungen bei Irenaeus an Figuren des apostolischen und nachapostolischen Zeitalters,” proposes that Irenaeus developed the concept of apostolic heritage in order to combat the counter-memory of his “heretical” opponents.The third section, “Memory, Identity and the Construction of Origins,” opens with Daniel Marguerat’s “De Jésus á Paul: L’invention du christianisme dans les Actes des apôtres,” which hypothesizes that Luke, rather than recording the details of the church’s beginning, built an ideal memory of Christian origins in Acts. Likewise, Claudio Zamagni, in “Reinventing Christian Origins,” analyzes selected postapostolic texts to conclude that second-century writers created a memory of church hierarchy to support the legitimacy of the emerging “orthodox” church against more egalitarian “heretical” movements. A contrary memory was created by Marcion to support his own program, as Enrico Norelli observes in “La Construction polémique des origens chrétienes par Marcion.” The discussion of Christian memory’s development in the postapostolic period is concluded with Cecilia Antonelli’s analysis of how Eusebius likely altered Hegesippius’s explanation of the Galilean and Judaean origins of the Palestinian church in “La construction de la mémorie des ‘origens’ par Hégésippe chez Eusèbe.”The fourth section, “Early Christianity, Memory, and Theology,” begins with Jörg Frey’s “The Gospel of John as a Narrative Memory of Jesus,” which contends that the purpose of John’s Gospel was to create a new memory of Jesus rather than reproduce reliable, nonsynoptic tradition. Andreas Dettwiler’s “Erinnerung und Identität” proposes that Colossians and Ephesians represent theological memory that transforms Paul’s theology and leads it in new directions. Finally, Jean Zumstein’s “La memoire créatrice des premiers chrétiens” examines the nature of early Christian memory, noting that it established a link not only with the past but with the future as well. This observation leads to the consideration of how today’s church also transmits Christian memory.The essays in Memory and Memories in Early Christianity provide insight into how biblical scholars employ social memory theory. In particular, the reader discovers that early Christian memories were more communal than individual. Bauckham’s appeal to apostolic memories as guarantors of reliable traditions is not supported. Furthermore, memory formation continued into the second century and beyond, when “social memories” were created that were useful for specific constituencies. In the process, later constructs, particularly of church order, were imposed upon earlier generations. One wonders, however, if the essays also display a bias of Continental scholarship that favors the creative role of the early church over its devotion to preserving tradition, as reflected in 1 Cor 7:10–16.