Wednesday, 25 May 2016

Memory and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity,
Tom Thatcher ed., SBL, 2014, page 161

Dr Chris Keith, professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, starts by interacting with Barry Schwarzt's contributions to biblical studies.

Pointing out that Schwartz is aware that the past is 'exceedingly malleable' at times, Keith nevertheless goes on stress that there is a definite link. He paraphrases Schwartz saying:

... lived experience sometimes leads directly to mnemonic forms (that is, sometimes the past creates rather than is created) and that 'history texts and commemorative events ... are at least partly dependent on the reality they repesent.

Not all smoke and mirrors then? Dr Keith continues:

... there is nevertheless an organic relationship between originating events and their subsequent commemorations. There is no such thing as wholesale fabrication, becuase even polemical twistings of the past do not foist their fabrications upon a tabula rasa.