REFLECTION OF READING MARK'S GOSPEL AS A TEXT FROM COLLECTIVE MEMORY BY SANDRA HÜBENTHAL: BASIC PROBLEMS AND OUTLOOKS
Abstract
The present text reflects the latest book by Sandra Hübenthal (Reading Mark's Gospel as a Text from Collective Memory), in which the author reads Mark's gospel as an externalisation of the collective memory. Hübenthal develops a hermeneutical and methodological toolkit, which should (in her own words) be helpful corrective to simplistic scenarios of textual growth.
Within the spectrum of approaches to memory, Hübenthal insists on a radically reconstructive nature of memories that are different from past events and consequently wants to abandon the research of the historical Jesus. The book contains numerous simplistic and contradictory theses and does not shed new light upon Mark.
Most importantly, the proposed method is highly problematic because Hübenthal (unsuccessfully) combines an ahistorical approach (narrative analysis) with assumptions that require historical research. Thus, by constantly ignoring historical work or pushing it into the later steps of analysis, Hübenthal makes speculative conclusions and unreflected presumptions about the interpreted text that guide her interpretation.
The presented text is divided into two parts. In Chapter 2, I explain the individual chapters of the monograph and comment on their problematic aspects.
In Chapter 3, I systematically focus on the main problems, which can be divided into several areas: a) proposed and used method and theory, b) absence of historical-critical work, c) approach to the text, which is unsustainable in the context of the period Hübenthal studies. d) In addition, I briefly comment on the author's often misleading and uncritical interpretations of presented theories.