Foster abstract

For Christians, memory is not mental recall of facts or events, but the continuation of a revelatory event in subsequent generations through narrative rehearsal and interpretation. Memory forms attitudes and actions. The earliest church, lacking canonical writings witnessing to Jesus, preserved his memory through worship. Hymns were particularly important. From this perspective of memory, the Magnificat is examined. This hymn places in the mouth of an ordinary woman the proclamation of Jesus as one in whom the Reign of God has come. This Reign reverses fortunes and discloses God’s regard of what the world calls “power” and “weakness.” So disclosing God’s righteousness, it brings the perception of those who join it into line with God’s.