Memory, Theories of History, and the Reception of Jesus

In this article it is argued that the concept of cultural memory makes a siginficant contributon to the study of the historical Jesus. Because the past is always perceived from the perspective of the present, historical reconstruction and reception of the past are per se intertwined. Thus, there is no “real” past behind the sources. Instead our view of events and figures from the past is a result of the remains from the past interpreted from the perspective of the present. Moreover, with regard to historical-critical reconstruction, and also to Jesus reserach, it is important to distinguish between the wider category of “reception”, which also encompasses fictional accounts, and historical reconstruction proper. The latter aims at an image of the past based on a critical evaluation of the historical material and thus providing a reasonable, plausible access to the past.