Religion as Social and cultural memory (Part Three): Moses and Jesus

There are various mnemonic formulae that religious traditions utilize to ensure the continuity and stability of the cultural and religious identity of mnemonic communities. In this week’s module, we look at non-textual based mnemonic functions of:

• Oral tradition (myth and epic form, such as Illiad and Odyssey, Gigmash),
• Major characters
• Major events
• Collective participation: rites, ritual performances, and festivals
• Ritual repetition secures the coherence of the group in place and time
• Festivals:
• the time of oral societies is structured into mundane and sacred times;
• people gather to collectively relive the past, celebrate their achievements, and enhance their sense of belonging in the group
• Memorials

Two case studies focusing on major character events:

We will first examine the Exodus as Cultural Memory

Unlike many of its neighbors in the Near East, who use a myth of creation to make sense of and organize their societies, Ancient Israel discovered its identity in the memory of historical events, first and foremost the Exodus from Egypt and God’s Covenant through Moses. In this context, the remembrance of God’s choice of Israel, preserved in the collective memory of the chosen people, appears as the principle of interpretation for all historical as well as mythical events. There appears to be “what Jan Assmann calls “Mosaic Distinction [1]” (Assmann 1997) (Frye 2013) between Israel and other ethnic and political entities in the Ancient Near East. The present at any moment in history can be linked with the Judean origin of the Mosaic past from within the framework of the genealogy of time so as to inject a strong sense of group identity, religious affiliation, and legitimacy to” (A. Y. Yang 2021) Jewish communities around the world. At the same time, “as the ultimate reference point for the Jewish people, is the promise of a good future, a fruit of God’s grace which is organically connected with the coming of the Messiah” (Urbaniak 2015).

“The memory of the Exodus is not just a memory of historical events, but a conflation of history and memory that suits the conditions of different qualities of time” (Hendel 2006).

Question 1:

Why and how the Exodus story stays relevant and resonates throughout history, not just for the Jewish community but also for other cultural and religious groups? How do you understand the Exodus as a mnemohistory?

We now look at the category of Christ-event and see how it is conceived in a mnemonic sense

• The person of Jesus Christ and the event regarding his birth, ministry, death, and resurrection perform significant mnemonic functions for the Christian tradition. Besides scripture, the event and person of Jesus Christ provide content (theology), life meaning, and identity to all Christians from the time of the apostolic church to now.
• “The category of the Christ-event encompasses the historical reality of Jesus — his life, death, and life again — as captured by scripture-in-tradition and experienced ever anew in the church through proclamation (word), manifestation (sacrament) and prophetic action (Forsyth 2010:302; Tracy 1981:447, 2011:111)” (Urbaniak 2015, 5).
• Christian community continuously feeds on the Christ-event, the fullness of which “lies simultaneously in the past (the historical-theological fact of the Incarnation, life, ministry and Passover of Christ), in the present (the Holy Spirit sanctifying Christ’s church all around the world), and in the future (the second coming of Christ and eschatological promise)” (Urbaniak 2015, 5).

Question 2:

In both Judaism and Christianity, we see “ultimate rootedness in the character-event” (Urbaniak 2015) played out; namely, Mose-Exodus and Jesus-death and resurrection are significant mnemonic anchors for the formation, preservation, and expansion of mnemonic communities of both traditions. Can you find other examples of character-event in other religious traditions? Illustrate your point with an example.

Please watch the following video

Holocaust Remembrance Day: Israel stops to remember victims — BBC NewsLinks to an external site.

[1] According to Jan Assmann, Israel’s “Mosaic Distinction” suggests a fundamentally different type of religion, “counter-religion,” because it rejects and repudiates everything that went before and what is outside itself, as “paganism,”…Whereas polytheism, or rather “cosmotheism,” rendered different cultures mutually transparent or compatible, the new counter-religion blocked intercultural translatability” (Assmann 1997) (Frye 2013).