Social Science And The Christian Scriptures, Volume 3 [Hardcover]

Sociologist Anthony Blasi analyzes early Christianity using multiple social scientific theories, including those of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Scheler, Alfred Schutz, and contemporary theorists. He investigates the canonical New Testament books as representative of early Christianity, a sample based on usage, and he takes the books in the chronological order in which they were written. The result is a series of stills that depict the movement at different stages in its development. His approaches, often neglected in New Testament studies, include such sociological subfields as sect theory, the routinization of charisma, conflict, stratification theory, stigma, the sociology of knowledge, new religions, the sociology of secrecy, marginality, liminality, syncretism, the social role of intellectuals, the poor person as a type, the sick role, degradation ceremonies, populism, the sociology of migration, the sociology of time, mergers, the sociology of law, and the sociology of written communication. Needing to treat the New Testament text as social data, Blasi uses his background in biblical studies and a review of a vast literature to establish the chronology of the compositions of the New Testament books and to present the data in a new translation that is accessible to non-specialists. Whereas for decades New Testament scholars have used selected social scientific theories to interpret the New Testament texts and reconstruct the history of the movements in which they were written, Anthony Blasi is an eminent sociologist well versed in New Testament scholarship. These volumes offer fresh insights, challenge assumptions, and invite more rigorous integration of social scientific and historical critical approaches to Scripture. Readers will undoubtedly find much with which to disagree, but also much to stimulate further and deeper enquiry. --Nicholas Taylor, St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, Glasgow, UK This is a work of complete mlÃN