(12 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
Loading...In my last post, I mentioned a phenomenon known as “collective” memory. It’s how groups of people “remember” something in the past. This isn’t quite the same as how you remember what you did on your last vacation. It’s more like how past events or figures are constructed in the broader “memory” of a society. Sociologists have long studied this problem, and their findings can help us think differently about how later Christian societies (groups of people) “remembered” Jesus.
Here’s an example I cite in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016).
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Remembering Lincoln
In 2014 a poll was taken of 162 members of the American Political Science Association, asking them to rank all the past presidents of the United States, from best to worst.[1] Probably to no one’s great surprise, the top-ranked president was Abraham Lincoln. Most of us – though certainly not all of us – remember Lincoln as a truly great and noble man who did remarkable things for his country. But he was not always thought of in that way. In his own day, Lincoln in fact was not seen as a great president. And not only in the southern states, whose inhabitants, as a rule, truly despised him and what he stood for. Even among his supporters he was not wildly popular. As social historian Barry Schwartz indicates, in his pivotal study, Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory, “When Abraham Lincoln awoke on the last day of his life, almost everyone could find something about him to dislike.” [2]
Schwartz’s book tries to show that Lincoln did not come to be considered “great” until after his death, and even then his fortunes in memory rose and fell depending on what was happening more broadly in the country as a whole. Every turning point in American history led to a revised image of Lincoln, both who he was as a human being and what he tried to accomplish (and did accomplish).
I think it is fair to say that most of us today remember Lincoln as one of the first great heroes of civil rights, as one who aggressively promoted the idea that “all people are created equal,” that whites and blacks deserve to be treated the same before the law, that black slaves should be set free and allowed to have the same rights and freedoms as their white owners.
We generally do not remember another side of Lincoln. Prior to the Civil War, Lincoln is clearly on record for
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I think it’s for the same reasons that we don’t mention the inadequacies of Martin Luther King.
“ The troubling legacy of Martin Luther King”- David J Garrow..May 2019 Standpoint Magazine
The important thing about Lincoln and all of us is that we evolve.
Does this analysis overlook the possibility that where we end up may be more memorable than how we got there? George Washington, for example, is praised for his modesty in declining to seek a third term but was ambitious for his own advancement earlier in his life.
On the contrary, most of my book is about where we end up is more memorable and historically more important. (esp. with Jesus)
Reminds me of Carl Becker’s presidential address to the American Historical Association in 1931.
A lengthy quote from the end of it:
“Regarded historically, as a process of becoming, man and his world can obviously be understood only tentatively, since it is by definition something still in the making, something as yet unfinished. Unfortunately for the “permanent contribution” and the universally valid philosophy, time passes; time, the enemy of man as the Greeks thought; to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow creeps in this petty pace, and all our yesterdays diminish and grow dim: so that, in the lengthening perspective of the centuries, even the most striking events (the Declaration of Independence, the French Revolution, the Great War itself; like the Diet of Worms before them, like the signing of the Magna Carta and the coronation of Charlemagne and the crossing of the Rubicon and the battle of Marathon) must inevitably, for posterity, fade away into pale replicas of the original picture, for each succeeding generation losing, as they recede into a more distant past, some significance that once was noted in them, some quality of enchantment that once was theirs.”
When you eat fruit do you even think of the “manure” that was part of the process of achieving the fruit? When you admire a building structure, do you include the destruction and pile of debris that was part of achieving the admired structure?
Nothing is “great” unless it replaces something not so great. Lincolns early beliefs were a reflection of the world that he was formed from. The “greatness” of Lincoln is what he himself “evolved” into.
Next time you drink some orange juice or apple juice, dwell on the manure and worms that were part of the creation of tree that later evolved to produce the fruit. My point is, “Why” should or would a person ruin the taste of fruit, by focusing on the manure? Do you like hot dogs? Want me to tell you about how rat poop is an accepted FDA ingredient up to a certain level?
Nobody is “hiding” the facts of Lincolns early beliefs, as they are document and preserved into history. Just as rat poop and manure are not secrets hidden away.(https://fox5sandiego.com/news/health/bugs-rodent-hair-and-poop-how-much-is-legally-allowed-in-the-food-you-eat-every-day/) Its just that there is no edifying reason or point to focus on it, What matters is the taste.
I’m thinking martyrdom does a lot to swing our collective memories of an individual to the positive. I think of two “Johns” who were murdered during my lifetime – Kennedy and Lennon. Kennedy had a lot of critics during his presidency. Lennon had faded from the public eye (and as a musical influencer) by 1980. Yet their shocking deaths quickly raised their esteem in cultural memory. Some of it may be due to a cultural taboo regarding speaking ill of the dead (especially the assassinated).
Yup, on both scores!!
Do Americans also have myths about George Washington? Can you share one with us Bart?
Absolutely. Lots of them. Most famously, George Washington and the cherry tree.