Handbook of Early Christianity: Social Science Approaches.

Handbook of Early Christianity: Social Science Approaches. Ed. Anthony J. Blasi, Jean Duhaime, and Paul-Andre Turcotte. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2002. xii and 802 pages. Cloth. $100.00.

This impressive tome intends to provide for biblical scholars important insights and results from the social scientific study of the Bible and early church. Twenty-six scholars contribute pertinent material from their fields of expertise. Following a general introduction the book is divided into five sections: methodology, the context of the Jesus movement, the role of power, economics, and psychosocial approaches. It is a very useful work in many respects. The bibliography may nearly be worth the rather uncommon cost of the book. There is an extensive list of references (pp. 643-703) and thorough compilations of sociohistorical studies dealing with major themes or sections of the New Testament (pp. 707-51). These can serve to guide further research. The majority of the essays also make frequent reference to pertinent materials.

I can note only a few of the articles here. David G. Horrell, in "Social Sciences Studying Formative Christian Phenomena: A Creative Movement," provides a necessary and quite extensive introduction to social scientific criticism of the New Testament. Jack T. Sanders has two helpful articles. In "Conversion in Early Christianity" he surveys recent theories regarding the conversion of Gentiles to Christianity and examines available early Christian data. From a sociological standpoint Sanders sees conversion resulting primarily from mutual involvement or encapsulation, but as a historian he emphasizes the rational power of the gospel. In her article, "Archaeological and Architectural Issues and the Question of Demographic and Urban Forms," Carolyn Osiek describes the structure of various houses in the early centuries of the Christian era. She analyzes their sociological function and then uses that to clarify early Christian texts referring to house churches. Peter Richardson and Douglas Edwards use archaeological data to show the role of banditry in Palestine at the time of Jesus ("Jesus and Palestinian Protest: Archaeological and Literary Perspectives"). They employ their findings to illustrate how Jesus would have been sympathetic to the plight of the exploited peasants and might even have been considered a bandit but was not really involved in social violence. In her article, "The Limits of Ethnic Categories," Nicola Denzy maintains that Christianity could develop as one entity because Jews and Gentiles shifted their identities from essence or primordial (e.g., Sabbath laws) to boundary or circumstantial (e.g., opposition to idolatry). In somewhat the same vein Harold Remus, in his article on persecution, shows how boundary formation by the first Christians invited Roman opposition.

This handbook is a very useful reference work and should be available to all scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity. Social scientific analysis of the New Testament has become a very extensive enterprise. While the book offers thematic sections, it does not cover the waterfront by any means. For example, there is no article on healing or on the family. However, the extensive bibliography points to additional resources in the missing areas.

Graydon F. Snyder

Chicago, Illinois