scholarly journals God’s patronage constitutes a community of compassionate equals

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert J. Malan
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Large Sector ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Symbolic Universe

The central themes of Jesus’ preaching, the kingdom and household of God, are root metaphors expressing the symbolic universe of God’s patronage subverting patronage and patriarchy structuring contemporary Mediterranean society, thus legitimising an anti-hierarchical community of faith. This dominant focus of Jesus’ message was discarded, as society’s prevalent patronage and patriarchy became the societal structure of the later faith communities. Today, patronage and patriarchy still forms the social structure for a large sector of Christian communities and many cultures, resulting in inequality, injustice, exploitation and suffering. This article proposes that the only remedy for the faithful is a return to Jesus’ essential message, by investigating the social dynamics suggested by these root metaphors using metaphor theory and social scientific methods. Patronage is studied within contemporary Roman and Mediterranean aristocratic patriarchal society, forming an a-typical broad-based needle-like power pyramid with multiple similarly structured power pyramids within, based on a morality of indebtedness, honour and power. Jesus accepted God as his father and declared the advent of God’s patronage as king (kingdom of God) and father of the faithful (children of God). Within the kingdom and household of God, there was no hierarchy, except for the primate of the first born son, whom Jesus symbolises as broker for God’s patronage to all his followers. Within the faith communities there should be no hierarchy or any form of clientage other than God’s patronage. Rather, the faithful are equal and should serve each other and their communities with compassion, responsibility and justice.Contribution: The contribution of this research is its focus on similarity and dissimilarity of these patronage metaphors and their application to subvert the power dynamics of patronage and patriarchy within the community of the faithful, in order to proffer God’s patronage of a society of caring, selfless equals today. This research falls within the scope of HTS Theological studies, as it is a multi-disciplinary study of key biblical metaphors investigated with accepted methodology resulting in valid conclusions which are ethically sound.

Future Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism: Social Dynamics, Contested Evidence

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-421
Author(s):  
C.D. Elledge
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resurrection Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
Sociological Studies

In its significance to both Jewish and Christian studies, resurrection of the dead remains a vital subject of biblical research; and it is now widely recognized that the religious culture of early Judaism (ca. 200 BCE—CE 200) played a crucial role in both its origination and early reception. In the present landscape of study, perhaps the most recent methodological advances arise from sociological studies, which attempt to contextualize resurrection within the social dynamics of the religious movements that advanced this hope. Moreover, at the exegetical level, many vexing pieces of evidence have produced conflicting readings of precisely what individual traditions may say about resurrection. The present article treats these topics, including (1) the application of social-scientific methods to the study of resurrection, and (2) readings of contested literary and epigraphic evidence that remains crucial to the scholarly study of the resurrection hope in early Jewish culture.

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.

scholarly journals When patrons are patrons: A social-scientific and realistic reading of the parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23)

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Social Game ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Scientific

This article presents a social-scientific and realistic interpretation of the parable of the Feast. The characteristics of a pre-industrial city are used to determine the realism of the parable. The social-scientific interpretation of the parable considers meals as ceremonies. The cultural values embedded in meals, namely honour and shame, patronage, reciprocity and purity, receive attention. The social dynamics of invitations in the 1st-century Mediterranean world is used as a lens to understand the invitations as an honour challenge, and the social game of gossip is used to obtain an understanding of the excuses in the parable. The conclusion reached is that the parable turns the world in which it is told upside down. As such, the parable has something to say about the injustices that are a part of the society we live in.

First Peter’s Identity Theology and the Community of Faith: a test-case in how social scientific criticism can assist with theological ethics via biblical theology

2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Paul A. Himes
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
1 Peter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific

Evangelicals recognise that exegesis must ultimately lead towards ethics, or practical Christian living. Unfortunately, too often the roadmap for that process has been neglected, and the link between the two becomes disjointed. This article discusses SSC, biblical theology, and ethics in 1 Peter, but attempts to contribute to the discussion by showing how the three interrelate, in that the identity theology of 1 Peter represents a reaction to the social-religious circumstances of its audience. This reaction, in turn, naturally allows the author to transition into ethics for the Christian. By being aware of this interrelation (with biblical theology as the ‘hinge’ between SSC and ethics), the modern Christian can properly apply 1 Peter’s theology to their own circumstances and avoid potential abuses.

scholarly journals Social-scientific criticism: Perspective, process and payoff. Evil eye accusation at Galatia as illustration of the method

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Evil Eye ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific

This article explores a presentation of the method, emergence and contribution of social-scientific criticism (SSC) as an inter-disciplinary operation of New Testament exegesis. A description of ancient evil eye belief and practice and its appearance in Paul’s letter to the Galatians illustrates how the method contributes to a more accurate translation of the biblical text, a clarification of its logic and a fuller understanding of the social dynamics involving Paul and his opponents.

Doctors and Patients: The Practice(s) of Nymphomania

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Poor Peasant ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One

The peasant Margaretha D., noted the asylum log, “often suffers from hysterical attacks, with which she wants to be treated like a distinguished lady . . . She raises herself above her social position and demands great attention and care.” This patient, in other words, though considered mad by the Eberbach asylum, was not a true hysteric: she rather “played” the hysterical lady. Two important issues suggest themselves from this description of feigned illness. The first has to do with the connection between class, gender, and the representation of illness. Madness, it seems, had its class and gender codes. Certain symptoms of hysteria—which in the eighteenth century had become a fashionable illness of privileged women, signifying the pathologies accompanying luxury, leisure, and “civilization”—appeared suspicious in a poor, peasant woman. Secondly, the “playing” of illness suggests (inadvertently) a subtext, normally buried and only implicit in the asylum notes: of illness as strategic behavior on the part of the patient within the social dynamics of the asylum. Margaretha’s symptoms were at least in part the result of a self-presentation to her keepers, a communicative act, with its own aims—attention, better care, and so forth. Both of these issues—the link between class, gender, and illness, on the one hand, and the strategic nature of symptoms, on the other—are at the core of the following analysis of nymphomania. Nineteenth-century physicians interpreted the behavior of nymphomaniacal women as a function of an internal state of being—as pathologically excited genitals—and in this way, they contributed to the construction of a modern conception of sexuality as an innate essence of personality. While no longer a clinical entity in post-Freudian psychiatry, the image of the out-of-control, sex-obsessed nymphomaniac remains very much alive in popular culture and continues to be grounded in a conception of sexuality as inner essence and “drive.” This analysis, by contrast, looks at nymphomania as acts and attitudes, which took place within very specific social contexts: the power dynamics of the asylum and the doctor-patient relationship.

Attitudes, Accounts and Impact Assessment

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Burningham
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Views And Perceptions

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the sociological study of environmental issues. One area in which this is evident is in the application of social scientific methods in social impact assessment (SIA): the study of the anticipated social impact of proposed changes to the environment. This paper addresses one aspect of the debate about appropriate methods for SIA; whether, and how, to include the expressed views and perceptions of those who will be affected. It is argued first that although SIA ostensibly deals with the social effects of projects there is a tendency for assessments to avoid any detailed consideration of the ways in which people are affected. Instead there is an emphasis upon technical and economic considerations. When assessments do attempt to incorporate the perceptions of local people they typically do so through some form of attitude research. However if language is viewed as a form of social action rather than as a detached commentary on reality there are radical implications for the methods traditionally used in SIA to gauge people's views and attitudes. I conclude by outlining an alternative to the traditional practice of viewing peoples' accounts as a repository of their attitudes, arguing that they might be more profitably used to explore how social impacts are socially constructed.

Wargaming as a Methodology: The International Crisis Wargame and Experimental Wargaming

2021 ◽  
pp. 104687812098758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Schechter ◽  
Jacquelyn Schneider ◽  
Rachael Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Crisis ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
New Research

Background. Wargaming has a long history as a tool for understanding the complexity of conflict. Although wargames have shown their relevance across topics and time, the immersive nature of wargames and the guild-like communities that surround them have often resisted the social scientific advances that occurred alongside the evolution of warfare. However, recent work raises new possibilities for integrating wargaming practices and social scientific methods. Purpose. Develop the experimental wargaming method and practice. Prioritizing the focus on iteration, control, and generalizability within experimental design can provide new opportunities for wargames to answer broader questions about decision-making, crisis behaviors, and patterns of outcomes. Method. The International Crisis Wargame developed in 2018 demonstrates the viability of experimental wargaming, and models the process of theorizing, designing, developing, and executing these wargames. It also identifies what makes games more or less experimental and details how experimental design influenced choices in the game. Conclusion. Experimental wargames are a promising new tool for both the social science and the wargaming communities. A proposed new research agenda for experimental design within wargames would support this nascent method

Toward a humanistic turn for a more ethical journalism

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1229-1245
Author(s):  
Perry Parks
Keyword(s):  
Public Affairs ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Epistemology ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Past Half

This article argues that the social scientific epistemology that has dominated journalism for the past half-century has devalued the moral implications of public affairs and deprived citizens of the ethical tools necessary to make humane political decisions. Reviewing the contingent history of the integration of journalistic and social scientific methods leading to journalism’s computational turn, the essay calls for a humanistic reconceptualization away from journalists’ role as political interpreters toward a comparable role as moral interpreters.

Basic Christian Communities: Their Social Role and Missiological Promise

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Curt Cadorette
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Social

This article discusses the social dynamics of basic Christian communities using insights derived from the social sciences. Drawing from critical social theory, the author first analyzes the ideological forces at play among marginalized people. He then discusses how these oppressive forces can be and are overcome by the community of committed Christians. Underlying the discussion is the assumption that contemporary social analysis has much to offer our understanding of ecclesial communities and that the lived faith of poor Christians provides a dynamic model of resistance to oppression which must likewise be taken into account by committed social theorists.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document