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4 [55–77] History in Light of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ Remarks on the Discussion concerning Memory and History from the Perspective of Early Christianity 1. Memory, recollection, history Spotlights on the current discussion With the concepts “recollection” and “history” the subtitle of this contribution takes up a dynamic specific to the discourse in the human sciences of the last twenty years: when history is spoken about at present, then the key words “recollection” and “memory” also always crop up. In the meantime, the relevant research takes place in a variety of fields. Three examples may be mentioned: • “Representations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in Europe,” a program supported by the European Science Foundation, is dedicated to the concept of the nation as a category that is fundamental for the self-understanding of European nation states and to its influence on European history writing. At an initial conference, which took place in May 2004 at the University of Glamorgan (GB), the areas of history writing, literature (historical novel), film, and visual arts as media of historical representation were taken into consideration. The formation of national consciousness as well as a shared European historical consciousness and the accompanying “formation of myths” were discussed here in a spectrum that can be outlined with the key words “identity,” “recollection,” “narrativity,” and “representation of the past.” It became clear that the writing of history has an identitycreating function and with this simultaneously a political function and therefore must always also be scrutinized in an ideological-critical manner. It became clear also that historical narratives must be situated within a broad spectrum of representations of the past. Both the concept of the nation and the notion of a European identity prove to be categories of interpretation that contribute to the structuring and interpretation of history and with this to the self-understanding of societies. • At the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities), a “Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research” was established a number of years ago, whose “Scientific Advisory Board” includes among others the literary scientist Aleida Assmann, the historian Norbert Frei, and the 50 From Jesus to the New Testament neurophysiologist Hans J. Markowitsch. The research projects [56] include “transmission of historical consciousness,” “comparative traditions-research,” and “recollection and memory.” In the last named project, which is led by Markowitsch and the social psychologist Harald Welzer (both from the University of Bielefeld ), human recollection is to be investigated from various perspectives—neuroscientific , social-scientific, developmental-theoretical. Thus a special accent lies here on the question of the connection between neuronal aspects of information processing as well as the recollection contents based on them and the emergence of a cultural or collective memory. The questions of how recollection takes place and how the corresponding contents are organized in the brain are to be incorporated into the investigation of the connection between recollection and history. • At the Justus Liebig University Giessen a special research area “recollectioncultures ,” funded by the German Research Foundation, was established, which deals with the contents and forms of cultural recollection from antiquity to the present. Here consideration is to be given to both science-of-history and scienceof -literature aspects of the subject. A work group deals specifically with theories of memory and recollection. Here too theories of memory from various disciplines —philosophy, psychology, sociology, as well as sciences of art and culture— are brought into conversation with one another. Special attention is given to the question of the dependence of conceptions of the past on the respective acts of recollection and the relativity of constructions of history bound up with this. As these examples show, the occupation with recollection, memory, and history currently moves within a broad interdisciplinary spectrum and is carried out in various large research projects. The integration of the concept of history into the context of memory research and the concept of recollection bound up with this indicates thereby a change of perspective on the past. By emphasizing the dependence of constructions of history on their cultural and physiological conditions, the appropriation of the past is simultaneously assigned to the sphere of human cognition and orientation functions. Thus, the occupation with the contents of history writing—with what was—is joined by the occupation with the intention with which these contents are transmitted and with the function that they fulfill for the selfunderstanding of a society. If one inquires into the reasons that have led to the development sketched...

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