Thursday, 30 June 2016

Religion and Cultural Memory (tr. Rodney Livingstone),
Jan Assmann, Stanford University Press, 2006, page 19

The seventh and last of the cultural memory formation techniques that Jan Assmann points out in the book of Deuteronomy is canonisation.

Canoniation of the text of the covenant (Torah) as the foundation of "literal" adherence. Canonisation means an intervention that subjects the constant flow of traditions that are being handed down to a strict process of selection. This intervention consolidates the selection and sanctifies it, that is to say, it exalts it to the status of an ultimate authority and in this way calls a halt to the stream of tradition once and for all. From now on, nothing can be added or taken away. The contract turns into the canon.