Overview

This text explores the foreign social context of first century Palestine and the Greco-Roman East, in which the Christian faith was first proclaimed and the New Testament documents were written. It demonstrates that a sophisticated analysis of the context is essential in order to understand the original meaning of the texts. The contributors examine social themes such as early Christian group formation, the centrality of kinship and honour and the economic setting. The book aims to provide significant new ideas on the relationship between social-scientific and literary-critical analysis, the theoretical justification for model-use and the way these new approaches can fertilize contemporary Christian theology.

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9780415129817

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One does not need to share this groups canonical bias nor its theological motivations to profit from this volume's wisdom (and splendid bibliography) for the project of redescribing early Christianity as processes of social formations...Permits and deserves a wide and diverse readership.. - Religious Studies Review, Vo. 23, No. 1, January 1997 Attention to the sorts of questions these authors raise and seek to answer should make the reader more sensitive to and aware of the very real human and social pressures, drives, and goals which were operative in the early churches and the surrounding society. - Ashland Theological Journal

One does not need to share this groups canonical bias nor its theological motivations to profit from this volume's wisdom (and splendid bibliography) for the project of redescribing early Christianity as processes of social formations...Permits and deserves a wide and diverse readership.. <br>- Religious Studies Review, Vo. 23, No. 1, January 1997 <br> Attention to the sorts of questions these authors raise and seek to answer should make the reader more sensitive to and aware of the very real human and social pressures, drives, and goals which were operative in the early churches and the surrounding society. <br>- Ashland Theological Journal <br>

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Philip Esler

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