{"id":2548,"date":"2007-08-28T00:30:53","date_gmt":"2007-08-28T00:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/knowing-the-currents-4.html"},"modified":"2007-08-28T00:30:53","modified_gmt":"2007-08-28T00:30:53","slug":"knowing-the-currents-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/knowing-the-currents-4.html","title":{"rendered":"Knowing the Currents 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1980s, alongside the rise of narrative and literary studies of the Bible &#8212; which it so happens made people readers of the Bible again and not just archaeologists digging behind the texts, was the rise of the multi-disciplinary approaches to the Bible. Suddenly, people were studying the Bible from so many angles it seemed like a smorgasboard of options asking &#8220;Which method do you use?&#8221; One major grouping was the use of social sciences and I want to focus on two of those: sociology and anthropology. <!--more|inline--><br \/>\nThe first studied the Bible from the angle of social description and sociological methods.<br \/>\nWe started hearing stuff about how charismatic leaders led, how groups functioned, how the early church was organized as a social group among other social groups, and how leaders functioned within groups. Some applied modern sociological theories &#8212; say on conversion &#8212; to ancient texts because we assume humans are basically the same &#8212; which I did in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTurning-Jesus-Sociology-Conversion-Gospels%2Fdp%2F0664225144%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1188249454%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">Turning to Jesus<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/>.<br \/>\nI mention the following books that shaped the whole field:<br \/>\nH.C. Kee, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FKnowing-Truth-Sociological-Testament-Interpretation%2Fdp%2F0800623355%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1188249663%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">Knowing the Truth<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\nBengt Holmberg, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSociology-New-Testament-Bengt-Holmberg%2Fdp%2F0800624432%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1188249727%26sr%3D1-2&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">New Testament Sociology<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\nG. Theissen, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSocial-Setting-Pauline-Christianity-Corinth%2Fdp%2F1592448712%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1188249787%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\nFrom the angle of anthropology two names stood above the rest.<br \/>\nMary Douglas, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FPurity-Danger-Analysis-Pollution-Routledge%2Fdp%2F0415289955%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1188249843%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">Purity and Danger<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\nBruce Malina, who applied and further developed the stuff of Mary Douglas, especially in a book called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNew-Testament-World-Insights-Anthropology%2Fdp%2F0664222951%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1188249898%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">The New Testament World<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1980s, alongside the rise of narrative and literary studies of the Bible &#8212; which it so happens made people readers of the Bible again and not just archaeologists digging behind the texts, was the rise of the multi-disciplinary approaches to the Bible. Suddenly, people were studying the Bible from so many angles it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-studies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Knowing the Currents 4 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/knowing-the-currents-4.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knowing the Currents 4 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the 1980s, alongside the rise of narrative and literary studies of the Bible &#8212; which it so happens made people readers of the Bible again and not just archaeologists digging behind the texts, was the rise of the multi-disciplinary approaches to the Bible. Suddenly, people were studying the Bible from so many angles it&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/knowing-the-currents-4.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-28T00:30:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"xscot mcknight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Knowing the Currents 4 - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/knowing-the-currents-4.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Knowing the Currents 4 - Jesus Creed","og_description":"In the 1980s, alongside the rise of narrative and literary studies of the Bible &#8212; which it so happens made people readers of the Bible again and not just archaeologists digging behind the texts, was the rise of the multi-disciplinary approaches to the Bible. 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