Is the emic-etic distinction a useful tool for cross-cultural interpretation of the New Testament?

1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-37
Author(s):  
P.F. Craffert
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Theory Of Science ◽  
Cultural Interpretation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Broad Overview ◽  
Interpretive Turn

AbstractNowadays the emic-etic distinction is becoming highly popular in New Testament studies. Whether it is a useful tool for interpreting the New Testament cross-culturally, however, is a question to be answered only after a thorough analysis of emics and etics in the social sciences. A broad overview of the history and significance of the emic-etic distinction in the social sciences is followed by brief remarks on the interpretive turn in the theory of science. Special attention is given to the adequacy of the emic-etic tool in claims of cross-cultural interpretation in which a high premium is placed on avoiding ethnocentric interpretations. Emics and etics as seen from a postinterpretive turn position are discussed in an attempt to redefine them with a view to application in interpretive discourses.

scholarly journals Social-scientific criticism in Nigerian New Testament scholarship

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley I. Uwaegbute ◽  
Damian O. Odo ◽  
Collins I. Ugwu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Standard Methodology ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Face ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Methodological Considerations

The use of the social sciences in the interpretation of the New Testament emerged from the 1970s and has become a standard methodology for interpreting the New Testament. However, it has not been significantly used in the interpretation of the New Testament in Nigeria by biblical scholars. This article discusses what social-scientific criticism is and the need for its application in the interpretation of the New Testament by Nigerian New Testament scholars for a better understanding of the New Testament and the people, beliefs and teachings it presents and contextualisation in the face of changing contexts of Christianity in Nigeria.Contribution: As far as we know, this article is the first one written on using social-scientific criticism to interpret the New Testament in the Nigerian context. It therefore contributes to the need for a multidisciplinary approach to interpreting the New Testament in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. It therefore contributes also on methodological considerations with regard to interpreting the New Testament.

scholarly journals ’n Retoriese benadering tot die Nuwe Testament

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
H. J. B. Brink
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Rhetorical Criticism ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rhetorical Studies ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies

A rhetorical approach to the New TestamentAlthough a rhetorical approach to the New Testament implies careful attention to certain stylistic features of the text, it also entails a greater awareness of the social dimensions of the interpretation of the Bible. Attention is given to the gradual resurgence of rhetorical studies. The relevance of rhetorical criticism for New Testament studies is also discussed.

Social Sciences and the New Testament

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietmar Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

Social-scientific criticism is the stage in the exegetical process that brings scrutiny to bear on the religious, geographical, historical, economic, social codes, and cultural values operative within the world of early Christianity. It does so by utilizing the perspectives, theories, and models generated by the social sciences. Broadly defined, social-scientific criticism approaches the texts of the New Testament from the viewpoint that meaning in language is embedded in a social system that is shared and understood by speakers, hearers, and readers in the communication process. It investigates the social features of the form and content of the texts along with the factors that gave shape to them. It seeks to discover the intended consequences of the communication process. It looks for complementary relationships between the texts linguistic, literary, ideological, and social dimensions—each of which contributes to a proper analysis and understanding of the texts of the New Testament. Social-scientific criticism investigates the manner of textual communication—that texts were strategically designed for effective social interaction that had social, literary, and theological consequence. Most significantly, it seeks to isolate the social data embedded in texts and constructs models that simplify and systematize the data for comparative purposes. Models of social phenomena such as kinship and family, honor and shame, patronage and clientage, collectivism, social status, limited good, evil eye, purity and pollution, ritual, gender and sexuality, landscape and spatiality, ancient economies, healing and health, and social memory permit the careful examination of these issues in biblical texts in socially significant ways.

Queer Theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 93-116
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Sex And Sexuality

Since the 1990s, queer theory has been immensely influential in the humanities, and, to a lesser extent, in the social sciences, seeping into discipline after discipline, even disciplines as well insulated as biblical studies. Queer theory is most commonly understood to be the poststructuralist analysis of sex and sexuality, heterosexuality as well as homosexuality. But as queer theory developed, it frequently decoupled from sex and sexuality, its expanded object of analysis becoming normality as such, in its manifold manifestations. This essay begins with a detailed account of the origins of queer theory: its “precursors,” its “exemplars,” and its relations to queer activism. The essay then charts the queer turn in biblical studies, especially New Testament studies, which also began in the 1990s, and traces such work down to the present, commenting both appreciatively and critically on the various paths it has taken. The final section of the essay brings the tale of extrabiblical queer theory fully up to date and reflects on the largely untapped potential for biblical studies of its more recent developments.

Social-Scientific Approaches to Paul

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd D. Still
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Initial Growth ◽  
Social Scientific Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

This chapter considers how Pauline interpreters have used and are using the social sciences to study the apostle and his letters. Before turning to the social-scientific study of Paul in particular, the advent and initial growth of the social-scientific study of the New Testament in general is considered. A treatment of prominent pioneers in and primary approaches to the social-scientific study of Paul comprises the majority of this essay, which concludes with a treatment of the identifiable developments both within and alongside the discipline.

Where Has Yahweh Gone? Reclaiming Unsavory Images of God in New Testament Studies

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-76
Author(s):  
James Metzger
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Images Of God ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
The Rich

AbstractIt is argued that recent publications in New Testament Studies, including those deploying its most progressive reading strategies, betray a strong predilection for an omnibenevolent, just, compassionate deity who does not offend our sensibilities. Given the rich, variegated profusion of alternative representations of the deity in the Hebrew Bible, a primary intertext for scholars constructing God in the New Testament writings, it is surprising that so few of these portraits are ever invoked or seriously engaged, which suggests a proclivity to religionism in the discipline. After delineating several benefits of the Bible's unsavory portrayals of God and disadvantages to today's fashionable deity of love, mercy, and justice, it is proposed that a broadening of our intertextual repertoire to include unflattering representations of the divine might open up new avenues in our hermeneutical explorations.

scholarly journals The contribution of cognitive anthropolinguistics to educational linguistics

1999 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
José Manuel Martín Morillas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
Educational Linguistics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pedagogical Grammar ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Linguistics

In this paper it is argued that, despite the welcome psycho-social emphasis in educational linguistic theories witnessed in recent decades, and with it, a rapprochement of the social sciences to the psychological sciences, the relationship between these fields has not gone far enough. The actual challenge is a move towards the unification of the social, psychological and language sciences (anthropology and sociology; cognitive science; and linguistics). A step in this interdisciplinary direction is offered by the discipline called 'cognitive anthropolinguistics', and its central concept of 'cultural cognition'. The paper discusses the implication of this concept for the field of educational linguistics, followed by a brief illustration of a cognitive-cultural application of that concept, namely the concept of 'ethnic stereotype', as part of a socio-cultural guide for a cross-cultural pedagogical grammar.

scholarly journals Armoedekultuur: Die leefwereld van die Nuwe Testament en die situasie in Suid-Afrika vandag

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Culture Of Poverty ◽  
Economic Statistics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

Culture of poverty: The world of the New Testament then and the situation in South Africa today. In this article poverty in the world of the New Testament is explained in the  light of the social dynamics of the first century Eastern Mediterranean. The focus is on the sub-culture of the disreputable poor. Features of a culture of poverty are reflected upon from a social-scientific perspective in order to try to understand why poverty is intensifying in South Africa today. The article aims at identifying guidelines for Christians in using the New Testament in a profound way to challenge the threat of poverty. The following aspects are discussed: the underdevelopment of third-world societies over against the technical evolution in first-world societies during the past two hundred years, economic statistics with regard to productivity and unemployment in South Africa, the social identity of the disreputable poor, poverty within the pre-print culture of the biblical period, and the church as the household of God where Christians should have compassion for others.

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