Saturday, December 1, 2012

Follow-up to "So you need a dissertation topic (Installment 3)"

With catlike reflexes, Joel L Watts replies to my previous post here:

http://unsettledchristianity.com/2012/12/but-is-the-diatessaron-about-memory-or-ease/

I do my best to answer:

Memory is always reactionary and always serves to determine the limits of identity (collective and otherwise). In this way, “counter-memory” is just a particular kind of memory… although more focused and politically motivated. The very fact that a harmonization interested some within Early Xnty demonstrates something very interesting about Xn identity formation. That many with in Early Xnty preferred a four-fold Gospels tradition tells us something even more interesting about Xn identity formation. Tatian’s work is a textbook example of memory distortion by way of socio-typical categorization.…or not; whatever, it’s not my dissertation topic. 

…and what is gained by creating a dichotomy between memory and ease? I’m not being coy, I’m really quite interested in this distinction.
-acld

1 comment:

  1. I can easily see the Diatessaron being 'easier' than four Gospels being treated as four Gospels. What we've ended up with is four Gospels effectively being treated as one; we read the version of a story we like, and rarely get beyond the level of 'Jesus said' in a sermon. To all intents and purposes, I think we have one Gospel, tailored to suit our culture. How does that compare with what's going on in the Diatessaron?

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