Social Memory Biblical Criticism：Theory And Case Studies

Social memory biblical criticism is an emerging method in the field of biblical criticism and interpretation,which applies the theory of social memory or cultural memory into the practice of biblical criticism and involves the following issues: the biblical text as social memory,the model of memory in the biblical narrative,the memory history about stories or figures,the bible and collective identity,etc.The rise of this method is not only closely related to the memory boom since the 1970 s,but also an inevitable consequence of the development of biblical criticism.In the early 20 th century,the biblical scholar Hermann Gunkel focused on the oral tradition,and then Gerhard von Rad and Martin Noth further expanded to written traditions.Later in the 1970 s,the struggle between maximalism and minimalism arose around the issue of authenticity of biblical history.All of these above promoted the development of social memory biblical criticism.This thesis selects social memory biblical criticism as the research object,systematically sorts out the theory and practice of this method,and applies this method into the interpretation of the theme of the fathers to promise in the story of Abraham in Genesis,and finally,this thesis attempts to summarize the theoretical value and future trend of this method.In the introductory part of Chapter One,this thesis first briefly discusses the differences between collective memory,cultural memory and social memory,and explains why the concept of social memory is adopted in this thesis.Second,it introduces the background of the rise of social memory biblical criticism,and emphasizes its internal rationality and inevitability.Finally,it reviews the current research status in China and abroad,and points out the huge development potential about this method.In Chapter Two,this thesis traces the theoretical basis of social memory biblical criticism,namely,the origin and development of social memory theory,and elaborates on the theories of memory from French sociologist Maurice Halbwach,French historian Pierre Nora,German ancient Egyptology and cultural studies expert Jan Assmann and American sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel.There are similarities and differences between these theories which have enriched the theories of social memory from the perspectives of sociology,history and cultural studies.In the third chapter,this thesis selects the three biblical scholars,Philip R.Davies in England,Ronald Hendel in the United States,and Ehud Ben Zvi in Canada,as examples to analyze how social memory theories are applied into the textual analysis on bible,thus sorting out the main research domains of social memory biblical criticism.In Chapter Four,this thesis takes the theme of the promises to the fathers in the Abraham story in Genesis as an example.It firstly discusses the function of the "barrenness women" motif in shaping the memory of national origin in Chapters 16 and 18,and points out that as a metaphor,barrenness women is a response to the historical situation of Judah’s being destroyed by the Babylonian empire,which has the function of resisting "anxiety of existence".Second,it analyzes how Chapter 17 recieves and rewrites the memory about the promises to the fathers in Chapters 16 and18,and emphasizes that this reconstruction shapes the national identity centered on the priestly group in Jerusalem.The research in this thesis shows that this method is of great value in discussing biblical historiography,the memory of different social groups and the patterns of memory and rhetorical art in the biblical texts.Moreover,this research is also beneficial to the interdisciplinary memory studies and the cross-culture interpretation of ancient classics.