Social Memory Theory and Gospels: A Preliminary Bibliography

To add to my previous posts on Social Memory, here and here, I've included this post to fill out the bibliography.

Together with Joshua Smith, I am in the process of compiling a bibliography of applications to Social Memory theory to the Gospels. This is a preliminary attempt. We hope that by sharing this, we can work toward a comprehensive bibliography. Go ahead and add anything we've missed in the comments below. 

A few points of clarification are necessary. This is list lacks any reference to the major players in the field outside of Gospels scholarship. If you've never read anything on this topic, you should really start with Fentress and Wickham's book Social Memory or really anything by Jan Assmann. You'll also want to become conversant with Aleida Assmann, Pierre Nora, Barry Schwartz, Yael Zerubavel, etc. None of these names (save Schwartz) is represented in this bibliography. If you'd like to start at the beginning, you'll want to read Maurice Halbwachs, or his mentor Henri Bergson. There are also some really fine works that apply Social Memory to other NT books. So this list lacks references to Georgia Keightly, Jeffrey Brickle, etc.  Feel free to add these below; I wouldn't mind expanding this list to NT studies in general.

Allison, Dale C. Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010.

Barton, Stephen C. “Memory and Remembrance in Paul.” In Memory in the Bible and Antiquity. Edited by Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Stephen C. Barton, and Benjamin G. Wold. WUNT 212. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. See especially pp. 333–34, 344–46.

Bockmuehl, Markus. Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study. STI. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006. See especially pp. 176–77.

Crook, Zeba A. “Memory and the Historical Jesus,” Biblical Theology Bulletin 42 (2012): 196–203.

DeConick, April. “Reading the Gospel of Thomas as a Repository for Early Christian Communal Memory” Pages 207–20 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Dewey, Arthur J. “The Locus for Death: Social Memory and the Passion Narratives.” Pages 207–220 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Duling, Dennis. “Memory, Collective Memory, Orality and the Gospels.” HTS Teologiese Studien/Theological Studies 67 (2011): 103–13.

Dunn, James D.G. “John’s Gospel and the Oral Gospel Tradition.” Pages 157–85 in The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. European Studies of Christian Origins. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

———. “On History, Memory and Eyewitnesses: In Response to Bengt Holmberg and Samuel Byrskog.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 26.4 (2004): 473–87.

———. “Social Memory and the Oral Jesus Tradition.” In Memory in the Bible and Antiquity. Edited by Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Stephen C. Barton, and Benjamin G. Wold. WUNT 212. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

Eckstein, Hans-Joachim. “Das Johannesevangelium als Erinnerung an die Zukunft der Vergangenheit.” Pages 299–319 in Memory in the Bible and Antiquity. Edited by Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Stephen C. Barton, and Benjamin G. Wold. WUNT 212. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

——. Der aus Glauben Gerechte wird leben Beiträge zur Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Beiträge zum Verstehen der Bibel. Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2003. See especially pp. 191–211.

Hearon, Holly. “The Story of the Woman Who Anointed Jesus as Social Memory: A Methodological Proposal for the Study of Tradition as Memory.” Pages 79–97 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Henderson, Ian H. “Memory, Text and Performance in Early Christian Formation.” Pages 157–84 in Religion und Bildung: Medien und Funktionen religiösen Wissens in der Kaiserzeit. Edited by Christa Frateantonio and Helmut Krasser. PAwB 30. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2010.

Horsley, Richard. “Prominent Patterns in the Social Memory of Jesus and Friends.” Pages 57–78 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Huebenthal, Sandra. “Luke 24:13–35, Collective Memory, and Cultural Frames” Pages 85–95 in Biblical Interpretation in Early Christian Gospels, Vol. 3: The Gospel of Luke. Edited by Thomas R. Hatina. LNTS 376. SSEJC 16. London: T&T Clark, 2010.

Keener, Craig S. The Historical Jesus of the Gospels. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009. See especially pp. 144–61.

Keith, Chris. “The Role of the Cross in the Composition of the Markan Crucifixion Narrative.” Stone-Campbell Journal 9.1 (2006): 61–75.

———. “The Claim of John 7.15 and the Memory of Jesus’ Literacy.” New Testament Studies 56.1 (2010): 44–63.

———. “A Performance of the Text: The Adulteress’s Entrance into John’s Gospel.” Pages 49–69 in The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. European Studies on Christian Origins/LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

———. “Memory and Authenticity: Jesus Tradition and What Really Happened.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 102.2 (2011): 155–77.

———. Jesus’ Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee. LHJS 8/LNTS 413. London: T&T Clark, 2012.

———. “The Fall of the Quest for an Authentic Jesus: Concluding Remarks.” Pages 200–05 in Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity. Edited by Chris Keith and Anthony Le Donne. London: T&T Clark, 2012.

———. “The Indebtedness of the Criteria Approach to Form Criticism and Recent Attempts to Rehabilitate the Search for an Authentic Jesus.” Pages 25–48 in Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity. Edited by Chris Keith and Anthony Le Donne. London: T&T Clark, 2012.

———. Jesus the Controversial Teacher. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014, forthcoming.

———. “Prolegomena on the Textualization of Mark’s Gospel: Manuscript Culture, the Extended Situation, and the Emergence of Written Gospels,” forthcoming.

Keith, Chris, and Larry Hurtado. “Seeking the Historical Jesus Among Friends and Enemies” Pages 269–88 in Jesus Among Friend and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels. Edited by Chris Keith and Larry Hurtado. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011.

Keith, Chris, and Tom Thatcher. “The Scar of the Cross: The Violence Ratio and the Earliest Christian Memories of Jesus.” Pages 197–214 in Jesus, the Voice, and the Text: Beyond The Oral and the Written Gospel. Edited by Tom Thatcher. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008.

Kelber, Werner H. “The Case of the Gospels: Memory’s Desire and the Limits of Historical Criticism.” Oral Tradition 17 (2002): 55–86.

———. “The Generative Force of Memory: Early Christian Traditions as Processes of Remembering.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 36 (2006): 15–22.

Kirk, Alan. “The Johannine Jesus in The Gospel of Peter: A Social Memory Approach.” Pages 313–22 in Jesus in Johannine Tradition. Edited by Robert T. Fortna and Tom Thatcher. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.

———. “Social and Cultural Memory.” Pages 1–24 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Semeia Studies 52. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.

———. “The Memory of Violence and the Death of Jesus in Q.” Pages 191–206 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Semeia Studies 52. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.

———. “Tradition and Memory in The Gospel of Peter.” Pages 135–57 in Das Evangelium nach Petrus: Text, Kontexte, Intertexte. Edited by Tobias Nicklas and Thomas Kraus. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007.

———. “Manuscript Tradition as a Tertium Quid: Orality and Memory in Scribal Practices.” Pages 215–34 in Jesus, the Voice and the Text: Beyond the Oral and the Written Gospel. Edited by Tom Thatcher. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008.

———. “Memory.” Pages 155–72 in Jesus in Memory: Traditions in Oral and Scribal Perspectives. Edited by Werner H. Kelber and Samuel Byrskog. Waco: Baylor University Press: 2009.

———. “Memory Theory: Cultural and Cognitive Approaches to the Gospel Tradition.” Pages 157–67 in Understanding the Social World of the New Testament. Edited by Dietmar Neufeld and Richard DeMaris. London: Routledge, 2010.

———. “Memory, Scribal Media, and the Synoptic Problem.” Pages 459–82 in New Studies in the Synoptic Problem. Edited by Paul Foster, Andrew Gregory, John Kloppenborg, and Joseph Verheyden. Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 2011.

———. “Memory Theory and Jesus Research.” Pages 809–42 in Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus, Vol. 1. Edited by Tom Holmén and Stanley E. Porter. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Kirk, Alan, and Tom Thatcher. “Jesus Tradition as Social Memory.” Pages 25–42 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Semeia Studies 52. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Kirk, Alan, and Tom Thatcher, eds. Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Semeia Studies 52. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Kloppenborg, John S. “Memory, Performance, and the Sayings of Jesus.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 10 (2012): 97–132.

Le Donne, Anthony. “Theological Memory Distortion in the Jesus Tradition.” Pages 163–178 in Memory and Remembrance in the Bible and Antiquity. Edited by Stephen C. Barton, Loren T. Stuckenbruck, and Benjamin G. Wold. WUNT 212. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

———. The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology, and the Son of David. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2009.

———. “Greater than Solomon: Orality, Mnemonics, and Scriptural Narrativization in Luke.” Pages 96–113 in Biblical Interpretation in Early Christian Gospels, Vol. 3: The Gospel of Luke. Edited by Thomas R. Hatina. Library of New Testament Studies 376. SSEJC 16. London: T&T Clark, 2010.

———. Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011.

———. “Memories of the Temple-Saying: A Critique and Application of Social Memory.” Pages 186–204 in The Fourth Gospel in Ancient Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

Le Donne, Anthony, and Tom Thatcher. “Introducing Media Culture to Johannine Studies: Orality, Performance, and Social Memory.” Pages 1–10 in The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

Le Donne, Anthony, and Tom Thatcher, eds. The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

McIver, Robert K. Memory, Jesus, and the Synoptic Gospels. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011.

Mournet, Terence C. Oral Tradition and Literary Dependency: Variability and Stability in the Synoptic Tradition and Q. WUNT 2/195. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005.

O’Day, Gail R. “Introducing Media Culture to Johannine Studies: Orality, Performance, and Memory.” Pages 239–49 in The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

Painter, John. “Memory Holds the Key: The Transformation of Memory in the Interface of History and Theology in John.” Pages 229–48 in John, Jesus, and History, Vol. 1: Critical Appraisals and Critical Views. Edited by Paul Anderson, Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher. SBLSymS. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.

Redman, Judith C.S. “How Accurate are Eyewitnesses? Bauckham and the Eyewitnesses in Light of Psychological Research.” Journal of Biblical Literature 129 (2010): 177–97.

Rodríguez, Rafael. “Reading and Hearing in Ancient Contexts.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 32/2 (2009): 151–78.

———. Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus in Tradition, Performance, and Text. European Studies on Christian Origins. LNTS 407. London: T&T Clark, 2010.

———. “The Embarrassing Truth about Jesus: The Criterion of Embarrassment and The Failure of Historical Authenticity.” Pages 132–51 in Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity. Edited by Chris Keith and Anthony Le Donne. London: T&T Clark, 2012.

———. “An Uneasy Concord: Memory and History in Contemporary Jesus Research.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, forthcoming.

———. “Jesus As His Friends Remembered Him: A Response to Dale Allison’s Constructing Jesus.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, forthcoming.

Schröter, Jens. Erinnerung an Jesu Worte: Studien zur Rezeption der Logienüberlieferung in Markus, Q und Thomas. Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament 76. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1997.

———. “Die Frage nach dem historischen Jesus und der Charakter historischer Erkenntnis.” Pages 228–33 in The Sayings Source Q and the Historical Jesus. Edited by Andreas Lindemann. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2001.

———. “Von der Historizität der Evangelien: Ein Beitrag zur gegenwärtigen Diskussion um den historischen Jesus.” Pages 163–212 in Der historische Jesus: Tendenzen und Perspektiven der gegenwärtigen Forschung. Edited by Jens Schröter and Ralph Brucker. BZNW 114. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2002.

Schwartz, Barry. “Christian Origins: Historical Truth and Social Memory.” Pages 43–56 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

———. “Jesus in First-Century Memory: A Response.” Pages 249–62 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

———. “What Difference Does the Medium Make?” Pages 225–38 in The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. European Studies of Christian Origins. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

Söding, Thomas. Die Verkündigung Jesu—Ereignis und Erinnerung. Freiburg: Herder, 2011.

Thatcher, Tom. The Riddles of Jesus in John: A Study in Tradition and Folklore. SBLMS. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2000.

———. “Why John Wrote a Gospel: Memory and Diversity in an Early Christian Community.” Pages 79–98 in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity. Edited by Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher. Semeia Studies 52. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

———. Jesus the Riddler: The Power of Ambiguity in the Gospels. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.

———. Why John Wrote a Gospel: Jesus—Memory—History. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.

———. “John’s Memory Theater: The Fourth Gospel and Ancient Mnemo–Rhetoric.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 69 (2007): 487–507.

———. Greater Than Caesar: Christology and Empire in the Gospel of John. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009.

———. “Aspects of Historicity in the Fourth Gospel: Phase Two of the John, Jesus, and History Project.” Pages 1–8 in John, Jesus, and History Vol. 2: Aspects of Historicity in the Gospel of John. Edited by Paul Anderson, Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher. SBLSymS. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009.

———. “Cain and Abel in Early Christian Memory: A Case Study in ‘The Use of the Old Testament in the New’.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 72 (2010): 732–51.

———. “Riddles, Repetitions, and the Literary Unity of the Johannine Discourses.” Pages 357–77 in Repetitions and Variations in the Fourth Gospel: Style, Text, Interpretation. Edited by Gilbert Van Belle, Michael Labahn, and Petrus Martiz. BETL 223. Leuven: Peeters, 2010.

———. “John and Judaism: Recent Research and Open Questions.” Pages 13–38 in Giovanni e il Giudaismo: Luoghi, Tempi, Protagonisti. Edited by Dario Garriba and Annalisa Guida. Hoi Christianoi 11. Naples: Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2010.

———. “Riddles, Wit, and Wisdom.” Pages 3349–72 in The Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus, Vol. 4. Edited by Tom Holmén and Stanley Porter. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

———. “Cain the Jew the AntiChrist: Collective Memory and the Johannine Ethic of Loving and Hating.” Pages 350–74 in Rethinking the Ethics of John. Edited by Jan van der Watt and Ruben Zimmermann. Context and Norms of New Testament Ethics, Vol. 3. WUNT 291. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.

Williams, Catrin. “Abraham as a Figure of Memory in John 8.31–59.” Pages 205–22 in The Fourth Gospel in Ancient Media Culture. Edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher. LNTS 426. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

Zimmermann, Ruben. “Memory and Form Criticism: The Typicality of Memory as a Bridge between Orality and Literality in the Early Christian Remembering Process.” Pages 130–43 in The Interface of Orality and Writing: Speaking, Seeing, Writing in the Shaping of New Genres. Edited by Annette Weissenrieder and Robert B. Coote. WUNT 1/260. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

Zimmermann, Ruben, and Gabi Kern, Hermeneutik der Gleichnisse Jesu Methodische Neuansätze zum Verstehen urchristlicher Parabeltexte. WUNT 231. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.