© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI: 10.1163/157430108X376546
Religion & heology 15 (2008) 280–303 www.brill.nl/rt
&
Religion
Theology
Bringing Chaos to Order:
Historical Memory and the Manipulation of History
Richard S. Ascough
Queen’s heological College, Queens University
Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
rsa@post.queens.ca
Abstract
In modern approaches to biblical and classical studies enlightenment scientific models have
dominated historical investigation. As such, the notion of memories and traditions, even when
they are assumed to be invented, are presented as reflecting a linear projection of history, with
singular causes of change. Modern science, however, has moved beyond the Newtonian view of
mechanics that undergirds such a view and is working with models of chaos and complexity.
Social scientists and humanists are lagging behind and are only now beginning to understand the
implications for their disciplines. his paper adds another voice to the small but growing cadre
of promoters of a non-linear notion of historiography by noting its implications for a project of
redescribing Graeco-Roman antiquity.
Keywords
historiography, chaos theory, monocausality, Lord’s Supper, historical trajectory, Roman history,
Christian origins
1. Introduction
In composing the preface for his gospel, Luke takes note of other resources
available for understanding the story of Jesus, but distinguishes himself
from his predecessors by claiming that his account will be laid out accu-
rately and in order (ἔƠƫƪơ ƦἀƨƫὪ ƬƝƭƣƦƫƧƫƱƤƣƦὭưƝ ἄƩƵƤơƩ ƬƯƥƩ ἀƦƭƥƞƮ
ƦƝƤơƪƮ Ưƫƥ ƟƭὥƴƝƥ, Luke 1:3). In using the adverb ƦƝƤơƪƮ (‘in order’)
Luke sets out to demonstrate the logical sequencing of events one after
another and, in so doing, shows how one event leads to, and in many cases,
has a cause-effect relationship with the next event.
1
As the seminal church
1
On ƦƝƤơƪƮ see Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, 2d
ed. (eds. J.P. Louw and E.A. Nida; New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), 610. As John Nol-
land notes, ‘Völkel (NTS 20 [1973–74] 289–99) has been able to show that the word can denote