If I Forget You, Jerusalem! - Studies on the Old Testament - Niels Peter Lemche
9. History and Memory in the Old Testament
If I Forget You, Jerusalem! - Studies on the Old Testament - Niels Peter Lemche
Niels Peter Lemche [+]
University of Copenhagen
Niels Peter Lemche, has been publishing in the field of Old Testament studies for fifty years. He has been both Assistant Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, from 1978 to 1986 and Professor of Theology at the University of Copenhagen from 1987 to 2013. He is the founder of the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, and a member of the board of the Copenhagen International Seminar (Routledge). He has recently edited (in co-operation with Dr. Jim West) Jeremiah in History and Tradition (Routledge, 2019).
Description
What is the difference between cultural (or – perhaps – collective memory) and history? Basically the difference is a modern invention dependent on the emergence of modern historical method since the 19th century. Before c. 1800 history was story, and the story had educational purposes: It had as its task to establish a feeling of cohesion within a society. Biblical historiography is accordingly not history in any modern sense; it is cultural memory.