The Jesus Movement: A Social History of Its First Century

Rating:
Summary: A vividly depicted, scholarly, and comprehensive history
Review: In The Jesus Movement: A Social History Of Its First Century, Ekkehard W. Stegemann (Professor of New Testament at the University of Basel, Switzerland) and Wolfgang Stegemann (Rector and Professor of New Testament at the Augustana Hochschule in Neuendettelsau, Germany) effectively collaborate to present a vividly depicted, scholarly, and comprehensive history of how the new and fledgling Christian movement developed, expanded, and evolved over the first hundred years of its existence. Of special interest is the roles played by women in the development of Christianity within the patriarchal, Mediterranean cultures. While highly recommended for students of New Testament Studies, this informative, engaging work is wonderfully accessible and written for the non-specialist general reader with an interest on how the Christian communities struggled and created their identities in both rural and urban settings.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent work of Social-Scientific analysis of NT world
Review: This is a seminal work using social-scientific methodologies to illuminate the world of the NT and early Christianity. It surveys and discusses(in a critical way,unlike many other treatments in vogue today) the theoretical issues surrounding the sociological and anthropological approaches to NT study.

On of the book's major strengths is that it has a comprehensive analysis of the social history(including the role of gender in the ancient world) and economic and social structure of Judaism and Christianity in its Greco-Roman context.The authors are familiar with the primary sources and judiciously apply sociological and anthropological methodologies in a critical way,that doesn't distort the sources or fill in the gap where the sources don't speak-a fault with alot of this type of NT analysis.

Another major plus is it differentiates, for the sake of analysis,the social world of the Palestian Judaism of Jesus and the urban milieu of the Greco-Roman world where the church made inroads in its mission.In both cases they correctly evaluate the type of current sociological and anthropological theory which will best illuminate the phenomenon under investigation.In all this the texts are the main focus, not the theoretical approaches being used. In my opinion, this book represents what the work of the Context Group(Bruce Malina,et al) could accomplish.I would call this book magisterial in its efforts.It's a must read for serious students of the NT.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent work of Social-Scientific analysis of NT world
Review: This is a seminal work using social-scientific methodologies to illuminate the world of the NT and early Christianity. It surveys and discusses(in a critical way,unlike many other treatments in vogue today) the theoretical issues surrounding the sociological and anthropological approaches to NT study.

On of the book's major strengths is that it has a comprehensive analysis of the social history(including the role of gender in the ancient world) and economic and social structure of Judaism and Christianity in its Greco-Roman context.The authors are familiar with the primary sources and judiciously apply sociological and anthropological methodologies in a critical way,that doesn't distort the sources or fill in the gap where the sources don't speak-a fault with alot of this type of NT analysis.

Another major plus is it differentiates, for the sake of analysis,the social world of the Palestian Judaism of Jesus and the urban milieu of the Greco-Roman world where the church made inroads in its mission.In both cases they correctly evaluate the type of current sociological and anthropological theory which will best illuminate the phenomenon under investigation.In all this the texts are the main focus, not the theoretical approaches being used. In my opinion, this book represents what the work of the Context Group(Bruce Malina,et al) could accomplish.I would call this book magisterial in its efforts.It's a must read for serious students of the NT.