Archival Memory, Authenticity, and Community - A Comparative Study of the Archive and Eucharist - PhD thesis

Aug 27, 2026

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The celebration of the Eucharist is grounded in the dominical command to “do this in remembrance of me.” This PhD thesis offers a comparative investigation into memory and authenticity within archival practice, drawing on both the theory and historical and contemporary practice and theology of the Eucharist. It examines how the archivist and the priest each relate to memory and argues that insights from priestly approaches can strengthen archival theory of authenticity within community.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages254

Reading Time10 h 40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Chapter 2: Context and Literature

Chapter 3 – The priest as archivist

Chapter 4: The priest in Scotland today – the priest as user of the archive and practitioner within the church

Chapter 5: The archivist as builder of community and preserver of identity

Chapter 6: Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices

Redhead, Adele (2021) Archival memory, authenticity, and community. A comparative study of the archive and Eucharist. PhD thesis. [https://theses.gla.ac.uk/82544/](https://theses.gla.ac.uk/82544/) Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses [https://theses.gla.ac.uk/](https://theses.gla.ac.uk/) [research-enlighten@glasgow.ac.uk](research-enlighten@glasgow.ac.uk) Archival Memory, Authenticity, and Community. A Comparative Study of the Archive and Eucharist. Adele Redhead MA(Hons) MARM Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Information Studies School of Humanities College of Arts University of Glasgow October 2021 Abstract The celebration of the Eucharist rests on the dominical command to ‘do this in remembrance of me’. This is a comparative study in memory and authenticity in archival practice, and the theory and the historical and contemporary practice and theology of the Eucharist. This thesis examines the two roles of archivist and priest, and argues that the ways in which the archivist relates to their archive can be advanced by looking at the approach of the priest to the celebration of the Eucharist. This thesis will also contend that by doing so we can shed new light on archival theory of memory and authenticity within their community. Both the archivist and the priest place importance on memory and the ways in which they play a part in maintaining, preserving, and promoting memory. The congregation in the church and the users of the archive depend on them as figureheads and key participants in the preservation of the memory of their community. The nature of this memory and the ways in which the two roles of the archivist and priest contribute towards it over time are explored and analysed in order to be able to advance the archival theory. Authenticity is a more difficult concept to try to apply to both the archival and religious spheres. This thesis will firstly look at what it means to the archivist, and then what it might mean to the priest, before finally looking at how the archivist’s perception of authenticity can be informed by religious practice. This study will be accomplished by looking at the archival theory of authenticity and memory against several case-studies which are important in the religious world. Saint Hippolytus of Rome is used to explore the way in which the priest can be seen to act almost as an archivist, by creating a written record of an act which was executed many times, involving many different groups of people, to the same template. The nature of the record itself, theories of archives and performance, and the move from an oral culture to a‘recorded’ one are all investigated to allow the role of the archivist to be better understood. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer is used to further this analysis, and to explore in more depth the relationship of the written record to an act which both informs it and is informed by it. The approach whereby both the record and the act itself can be linked to memory is relevant in this section of this study, and the contrasting ways that both the archivist and the priest view this link between the act and memory is established and analysed to enable the archival theory to be interrogated in a different way. The role of the religious community in the celebration of the Eucharist is introduced, and the importance of the Eucharist as an act to preserve an

FAQs

What is the central research focus of the thesis?

The thesis studies memory and authenticity in archival practice by comparing it with the theory, theology, and practice of the Eucharist.

How does the thesis connect the roles of archivist and priest?

It examines both roles and argues that the archivist’s practice can be advanced by considering how the priest engages in the celebration of the Eucharist.

What case studies are used to develop the archival theory?

The thesis uses Saint Hippolytus of Rome and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, along with additional smaller case studies informed by interviews and analysis of denominational published materials in Scotland.

Aug 27, 2026

Upload by Terk