An Ethnography of the Gospel of Matthew: A Critical Assessment of the Use of the Honour and Shame Model in New Testament Studies.

AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF THE HONOUR AND SHAME MODEL IN NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES. By Louise Joy Lawrence. WUNT 2.165. Tubingen, Germany: Molar Siebeck, 2003. Pp. xix + 392. Paper, $80.00.

This book roots in and challenges certain uses of social-scientific models in NT studies. Though consistently appreciative of anthropological method, Lawrence demonstrates the basis for and value of a radical review of the honor-shame model as proposed by B. Malina. Most fundamentally, she claims the model is flawed and wants reformulation; its uncritical use as a standard for assessing what is/is not counter-cultural works inaccurately. Also implicit is the degree to which moderns can establish the relationship between worlds of textual production or reference and that of literary representations--with methodological integrity. The book is a revised dissertation (University of Exeter, David Horrell director).

Lawrence proceeds in two major integrated parts, one more theoretical and the other more empirical. After summarizing prominent scholars who follow Malina, she summarizes the gains (e.g., unmasking the gap between ancient and modern worlds) but identifies three problematic areas: a tendency to over-use abstract models, a static way of understanding culture, and a bent toward reification of ancient literary material. These deficiencies provide the agenda fur her own procedure (ch. 1). Lawrence constructs the methodological foundation for her literary-ethnographic work, drawing in M.M. Bakhtin, whose theory obviates the socio-historical/literary dichotomy common in biblical studies. Most salient is his sense of constant, mutual dialogue among all voices reverberating within a text and the consequent liberation of diversity, nuance, and conflict. Lawrence defines concepts borrowed: heteroglossia, dialogism, utterance, genre. Also briefly noted is the work of J. Pitt-Rivers, who has supplemented the standard honor-precedence model with an honor-virtue aspect, where honor is gained through right action (ch. 2). Lawrence next sets forth the features of Matthew's Gospel in ethnographic terms, making visible diversity of characters' social roles and setting up her descriptive work: generating from informants' utterances details about their prosaic lives. She challenges users to navigate between over-reading and underseeing the models, between assuming too clear a pane between a culture and its representation and the refusal to construct any link whatever (ch. 3).

In her second major section Lawrence performs ethnographic work proper: interrogation of five major facets of the honor/shame model in relation to Matthew's Gospel. Each utilizes the same plan: naming ethnographic themes and correlating them to the Mediterranean models project; identifying gospel informants; analyzing data; reviewing current research theory, specifically from Mediterranean ethnography; considering Greco-Roman and Hellenistic-Jewish data to ground greater diversity than is sometimes evident; summarizing gains.

In ch. 4 the ethnographic theme is power, the Mediterranean model the anti-introspective self, and the informants are political leaders. Not only honor precedence but honor virtue is crucially in play, with evidence suggesting that the inner lives of characters is morally significant terrain. In ch. 5 the theme is religious practice, the standard model names agonistic interaction/challenge and riposte; the informants are Jesus and the religious leaders. Analysis undermines reductionistic reading: criteria for agonistic exchange are sometimes present though without having operative priority and are sometimes not present; honor virtue exposes counter-values in Judaism antithetical to prestige value so prized in the model. Virtue honor is convincing. Ch. 6 features exchange and limited good, the informant is Jesus teaching (e.g., Sermon on the Mount, parables). Lawrence finds that certain valued goods--God's bounty, Jesus' healing, peasant hospitality--are not envisioned as limited; to absorb all goods and all contexts under one rubric distorts. Dialogical analysis reveals wider diversity. Sharing is urged, evidenced, valued.

In ch. 7 the theme is the vast kinship field, the standard concept is dyadic personality, the informants are John the Baptist, disciples, family. Collectivist culture models do not do justice to transactions. Kinship (biological and fictive) is operative but so also are more individualistic choices. The dyadic is actually polyadic. Ch. 8 considers the theme of gender and social stratification manifested in labor, the informants women with whom Jesus interacts. Lawrence observes that people typically participate in various role strata, which challenges the dominance of expected gender dichotomies. In Matthew the standard gender model is visible but not inevitably determinative. Women act effectively in multiple ways. A tight, clear summary concludes the book.

The strengths to this book are many. The Mediterranean model is shown useful but in need of substantial rethinking: from within anthropology, from wider critical theory, and on the basis of "ecological study." Discussion and notes show Lawrence in significant conversation with the field. Her readings foreground minority positions and show "Jewish voices" to value honor virtue. Bakhtin's persistent anti-formalist bent sets his thought in contention with any models project--not to overturn but challenge it to finer precision. Dialogism is a useful corrective for abstracting and totalizing. On the other hand, Bakhtin is under-utilized, e.g., Lawrence's neglect of his authoring/narrator theory leave unconsidered broader gospel ideology which is relevant to her project.

Barbara Green

Dominican School of Philosophy and

Theology, Graduate Theological Union 

Berkeley, CA 94709