Memoir of Moses

The Book of Deuteronomy characterizes memory as the key to Israel’s covenantal loyalty and commands its cultivation in the generations to come, and portrays itself as the foundation for this ongoing memory program. For this reason, Deuteronomy is rightly considered to be an ancient collective memory text. However, recent scholarship has not focused on the book as a formative agent, leaving fundamental questions about the book unanswered: Why does Deuteronomy see memory as important in the first place? How does it seek to cultivate this memory in the people? A. J. Culp answers these questions by exploring Deuteronomy as a formative memory text and bringing contemporary memory theory into dialogue with biblical scholarship.Culp shows that Deuteronomy has tailored memory to its unique theology and purposes, a fact that both illuminates puzzling aspects of the text and challenges long-held views in scholarship, such as those regarding aniconism.

This book is long overdue. Many students of Deuteronomy have expressed their hunches about how the Torah of Moses perceives memory and how memories are created. Appealing to recent social scientific studies on the subject, A. J. Culp has constructed firm theoretical foundations for discussions of memory in Deuteronomy. While memory features more prominently here than elsewhere, we may adapt and apply his methods and insights to other biblical books as well. The author begins quite theoretically, but his discussion is crisp and clear and accessible to a wide readership. Culp’s work on story, ritual, and song as significant memory vectors in the teaching [Torah] of Moses is outstanding. I wish I had this book twenty years ago!, Deuteronomy is a book in which memory plays a central role, particularly as it seeks to shape Israel's corporate life. Drawing on the insights of developments in memory theory and using this in close and careful readings of the text, A. J. Culp helps us realise why and how this important aspect of the book can be recovered while also noting the different ways Deuteronomy draws on memory in shaping the commitments of its audience. Culp has not only reminded us of the importance of this motif for the book, he has creatively shown us how this continues to be important for those of us who read this book as Scripture.

A. J. Culp is lecturer in Old Testament and biblical languages at Malyon Theological College and honorary research fellow at the University of Queensland.