Geschichtstheorien und Neues Testament. Gedächtnis, Diskurs, Kultur und Narration in der historiographischen Diskussion

This article seeks to challenge the strict division between historical-critical and literary-critical methods of interpreting NT texts. In so doing, theories employed in historical scholarship since the linguistic turn, such as memory research, discourse theory, and cultural anthropology, are taken up, with particular attention given to insights relevant for NT studies from the field of narrative history. The specific relationship between history and literature in early Christian texts can be determined more precisely only through the methods utilized in historical narratology. In such an approach, both the narrative composition and the historical referentiality must be considered and analyzed, as well as the specific relationship between factuality and fictionality. Ultimately, the deriving of meaning from and through narrative creates hermeneutical possibilities since the NT narrative examples for making the past present facilitate contemporary attempts to bridge the gap to these source texts.