Others and the Construction of Early Christian Identity (original) (raw)

Social Identity Theory and Biblical Interpretation

This study is intended to provide readers with an introduction to Social Identity Theory and its use as a heuristic device for biblical interpretation. After a general overview of Social Identity Theory and some important related concepts, the study summarizes some of the scholarly works that have employed this model in studies of Hebrew and Christian texts.

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Christian Identity, A Review Article

Barentsen, Jack. “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Christian Identity, A Review Article (Holmberg, Ed., Exploring Early Christian Identity (WUNT 1:226) and Holmberg & Winnenge, Eds., Identity Formation in the New Testament (WUNT 1:227)).” Biblische Zeitschrift 54, no. 2 (2010): 245–52., 2010

Early Christian Identity Formation: From Ethnicity and Theology to Socio-Narrative Criticism

Currents in Biblical Research, 2011

In this article, the author traces four trajectories in which early Christian identity formationhas been studied in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: ethnicity, theology, social-scientific,and literary. The author concludes by suggesting a way forward that includes interdisciplinarywork that combines the insights of these four trends.

‘Early Christian Identity Formation amidst Conflict’, JECH 5 (2015): 26-48

This article examines the historical development and nature of early Christian identity during the first two centuries C.E. The formation of early Christian identity was inextricably related to conflict. There were conflicts within the emerging movement itself, and conflicts with both Judaism and the Roman Empire. Within these contexts, early Christian identity evolved from being a Jewish ethno-religious identity into a Christian identity that was unattached to a particular geopolitical and ethno-cultural identity. Even though early Christians constructed their identity by means of ethnoracial language, it simultaneously superseded and absorbed existing identities and hence was a meta- or trans-ethnic identity. THE DOWNLOADABLE ARTICLE IS THE FINAL WORD-VERSION BUT HAS DIFFERENT PAGE NUMBERS AND FORMAT THAN THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE.

“Social Identity and Scriptural Interpretation: An Introduction,” in Reading Other Peoples’ Texts: Identity Formation and the Reception of Authoritative Traditions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020).

All reading is an encounter with someone else, an attempt to engage with another who does not share one’s own perspective, experiences or identity. Since these perceptions are inherently subjective and variable, this inevitably creates ambiguities and conflicts when an author’s perceptions of their audience differ from how any particular, actual audiences perceive themselves. Such tensions are especially acute when texts are granted religious authority and continue to be read by communities other than those for which they were originally composed. In these new contexts, not only the meaning of the language, but also the texts’ claims of authority, identity, and social relation must be negotiated anew. This chapter offers conceptual and methodological reflections on the formative links between interpretation and identity, particularly how perceptions of identity and difference (often in the form of a distinction between “us” and “the Other”) shape the reading of religiously authoritative texts, and how such texts themselves are appealed to in order to justify, support or challenge such perceptions of identity and difference.

A Foreign People: Towards a Holistic Identity Theory within a Christian Context

Religions, 2023

In this contribution, the identity theory is reconsidered in respect to its epistemology. The social identity theory (SIT) and social identity complexity theory (SICT) are both instruments of social sciences based on naturalistic assumptions. The question is asked if social identity theories can fully account for the Christian identity, especially in respect to being confined to the natural, social domain. In light of the way that identity is presented in the New Testament, and especially the way in which the Christian identity is presented as a socially foreign identity in texts such as 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11; Philippians 3:20 and Ephesians 2:19, a more holistic approach to identity that includes aspects of a supernaturalistic epistemology is considered. In other words, a holistic theory of identity is considered, in which the Christian identity is described in terms of one’s relationship to other people (sociological), as well as one’s relationship to God (theological).