The following is a brief excerpt from the 2018 Benjamin Eby Lecture, “Memory, Identity, and the Sermon on the Mount: The Case of André Trocmé,” given by Religious Studies Professor Alicia Batten on October 18, 2018. The communities of the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon in France have become famous for their efforts to rescue refugees fleeing from authorities during WW II. One of the leaders, pastor André Trocmé, has received considerable attention. Alicia’s lecture centred upon Trocmé’s interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount at various points in his life, and explored how social memory and identity figure significantly in the interpretation and use of biblical texts.
“The Sermon on the Mount—memorialized in the Gospel of Matthew—served as a consistent source of knowledge for André Trocmé as he defended his positions on highly contested issues such as war, conscientious objection, various economic and social problems, and as he risked his life, with many others, for the sake of the persecuted during WW II. The Sermon functioned this way, at least in part, because it resonated with Trocmé’s own identity as a minority within a minority, a pacifist, a socialist, a cosmopolitan; and as someone who reflected Kristen Renwick Monroe’s notion of ‘moral salience.’
"Which texts, sacred or otherwise, that a community or individual privileges, and how such texts are interpreted, are dependent, in part, on the identities of those people using them. This may be an obvious point. But studying the interpretations by different groups and people, including non-academic figures such as André Trocmé, is essential for the study of the Bible and the manner in which it is used. And, given that religious texts and traditions continue to be employed in the public square, it is essential that we hear these minority voices.”
Watch the complete lecture online at www.grebel.ca/eby.
