Petri Luomanen - Böcker

In this commentary, Robert L. Brawley provides comprehensive coverage of issues and concerns related to Luke from the perspective of social identity. He argues that the Gospel of Luke is strongly concerned with the formation of identity from the very start of the text, which aims at the creation of a socially responsible community in continuity with that community’s collective past.Brawley establishes a theoretical framework that focuses his interpretation - ranging from the narrative world and sociological issues to postcolonialism and hierarchies of dominance - and uses these perspectives to provide a clear overview of historical and critical issues related to an understanding of Luke. He then provides a thorough outline of and commentary on the text of the Gospel. Brawley’s engagement with the text serves as an invaluable resource for scholars, students, clergy, and others interested in their own discoveries of the resources of Luke.

William S. Campbell provides a comprehensive commentary on Paul’s most challenging letter. In conversation with reception history and previous scholarship, he emphasizes the contextuality of Romans as a letter to Rome, using social identity theory combined with historical, literary and theological perspectives to arrive at a coherent reading of the entire letter. Because Paul has never visited Rome and is not the founder of the Christ-movement there, Campbell argues that his guidance and teaching are formulated more cautiously than in his other letters. Yet the long list of people who had previous links with him and his mission to the ‘gentiles’ demonstrates that Paul is well-informed about the situation in Rome and addresses issues that have arisen.With Christ the Messianic Time is beginning, but there was some lack of clarity in Rome about the implications of this for Jews and gentiles. Rather than ethne in Christ replacing Israel, as some in Rome possibly concluded, Campbell stresses that Paul affirms the irrevocable calling of Israel, and that simultaneously the identity of ethne in Christ is also called alongside the people Israel; thus, the integrity of the identity of both is affirmed as indispensable for God’s purpose now revealed in Christ. Campbell fully demonstrates how Paul in Romans achieves this by the social and theological intertwining of the message of the gospel.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians deals with key aspects of the formation of the Christian community at Corinth. Paul uses his correspondence with the Corinthians to address issues of morality, of community structure, of ritual and of religious behaviour. The letter is a key document for understanding the development of Christianity and for understanding Christianity in its earliest context.In this Social Identity Commentary, J. Brian Tucker provides a comprehensive coverage of the issues and concerns related to 1 Corinthians from the perspective of social identity. Tucker outlines his interpretation of the theoretical issues concerned, and then applies this to provide a clear overview of historical and critical issues related to the study of 1 Corinthians. This provides a clear engagement with the text that will serve as a useful resource for scholars, students, clergy, and people interested in the formation and purpose of the letter.

Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount offers fresh readings of themes and individual sayings in the Sermon on the Mount (SM) using socio-cognitive approaches. Because these approaches are invested in patterns of human cognition and social mechanisms, the resulting collection highlights the persistent appeal and persuasiveness of the SM: from innate moral drives, to the biology of emotion and risk-taking, to the formation and obliteration of in-group/out-group distinctions. Through these theories the authors show why--even across cultures and history--the SM continues to grip both individual minds and groups of people in order to shape moral communities. Classical historical-critical readings interpret the sermon according to the conventions of literature, seeking a relationship to other texts and ideas. By contrast our volume explores the SM not so much for the logical and historical relationships to other literary traditions, but also--and perhaps more importantly--for the ways it stimulates emotional, biologically, culturally habituated, evolutionarily preconditioned, and socially sanctioned characteristics of humans. In short, the volume shines a light on the action-inducing properties of the text. The volume will introduce a broader group of scholars, students, and clergy to the relevance of social scientific and cognitive studies for interpretation of the Bible, by applying these approaches to possibly the most read and discussed text in the Bible.

Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount introduces a broader group of scholars, students, and clergy to the relevance of social scientific and cognitive studies for interpretation of the Bible, by applying these approaches to what is possibly the most read and discussed text in the Bible. Because these approaches are invested in patterns of human cognition and social mechanisms, this collection highlights the persistent appeal and persuasiveness of the Sermon: from innate moral drives, to the biology of emotion and risk-taking, to the formation and obliteration of in-group/out-group distinctions. Through these socio-cognitive theories the authors show why—even across cultures and history—the Sermon continues to grip both individual minds and groups of people to shape moral communities.

The book illuminates “the other side” of early Christianity by examining thinkers and movements that were embraced by many second-century religious seekers as legitimate forms of Christianity, but which are now largely forgotten, or are known only from the characteristics attributed to them in the writings of their main adversaries.The collection deals with the following teachers and movements: Basilides, Sethianism, Valentinus’ school, Marcion, Tatian, Bardaisan, Montanists, Cerinthus, Ebionites, Nazarenes, Jewish-Christianity of the Pseudo-Clementines, and Elchasites.Where appropriate, the authors have included an overview of the life and significant publications of the “heretics,” along with a description of their theologies and movements. Therefore, this volume can serve as a handbook of the second-century “heretics” and their “heresies.” Since all the chapters have been written by specialists who wrestle daily with their research themes, the contributions also offer new perspectives and insights stimulating further discussion on this fascinating—but often neglected—side of early Christianity.