Memory and memories in early Christianity

Bringing together thirteen talks given at the international conference „Memory and Memories in Early Christianity“, held at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva in June 2016, this interdisciplinary volume explores a fresh problem in the study of the origins of Christianity and of the New Testament, namely the „work of memory“ undertaken in the discourses and practices of the believers in Jesus. The studies collected here not only apply a heuristic analytical tool - „social memory theory“ - to the literature and history of Christian beginnings, but also endeavour to show the socio-religious resonance of this „work of memory“ in the language and ideology of the early believers. The historical Jesus, the Pauline writings, the Gospel of John, the Acts of the Apostles, Marcion, ancient Christian epistolography, Hegesippus, Irenaeus, etc. are explored by some of the world's top specialists in „social memory studies“ as applied to Christian origins.