The Jesus Conference Roster: Alan Kirk—Chris Keith

Photo www.jmu.edu

The "Memory and Reception of Jesus in Early Christianity" conference at St Mary's University on June 10-11 will also feature a presentation from Alan J. Kirk.  Alan is a University of Toronto (Kloppenborg) grad who initially made his name in Synoptic Problem research.  He has also written extensively on the Gospel of Peter in recent years.  More important for this conference and for readers of the Jesus Blog, Alan is really the source of the "memory approach" in English-speaking scholarship.  Alan wrote a short chapter in Tom Thatcher and Bob Fortna's Jesus in Johannine Tradition that was an application of social memory theory to the dating of the Gospel of Peter, specifically as it related to that text's relationship to the Gospel of John.  Alan had come upon the theory by mere chance after finishing his PhD, and it's actually a funny story involving pools, academics, and a fortuitous misunderstanding.  At any rate, reading Alan's chapter prompted Tom Thatcher to propose that they put together a Semeia volume on this "social memory theory," and that became the seminal work, Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity (2005).  I still consider Alan's introduction to "Social and Cultural Memory" in that volume to be the single best introduction to what the terms of the theory mean and how the theory relates to the discipline of Biblical Studies.

Many of Alan's publications on memory theory and NT studies have, in my opinion, gone under-appreciated, perhaps because they are often in volumes of collected essays and reference works.  This will soon be corrected, as Bloomsbury T&T Clark will be publishing a collection of Alan's essays as a book in the "Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries" monograph series.  LNTS is also getting ready to release his second monograph, a major contribution to Q scholarship and memory theory:  Q in Matthew: Ancient Media, Memory, and Early Scribal Transmission of the Jesus Tradition.

At the conference in June, Alan will be presenting on "Memory and Media."  His lecture will range from Q and ancient media to recent applications of memory theories in NT research, but generally reflect on how "memory" relates to ancient media culture (orality, textuality, scribality, etc.).  If you'd like to hear his lecture or have a cup of coffee with Alan, you can register here.