The Social Setting of Jesus and the Gospels.

Edited by Wolfgang Stegemann, Bruce J. Malina, and Gerd Theissen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. xvi and 404 pages. Paper. $24.00.

This volume contains nineteen essays read at the fourth international meeting of the Context Group, held in Tutzing, Germany, in 1999. The Context Group consists of scholars who use social-scientific methods to determine the milieu of the Jesus movement. The purpose of this particular conference was to elucidate the "historical Jesus" by methods not regularly used by other New Testament critics (p. vii). These essays have been assembled and edited by three scholars in the forefront of the social-scientific approach. Their articles set the tone. Malina presents the methodology in his "Social-Scientific Methods in Historical Jesus Research" and summarizes the current state of research (pp. 126). Stegemann writes on "The Contextual Ethics of Jesus" (pp. 45-61). Among other observations, I found his discussion of neighbor love and enemy love very helpful. He eschews the sense of romantic love and argues that, understood contextually, love refers to family kinship in a social and economic sense. Hate, then, referred to the dissolution of such ties (p. 57). Theissen writes on Jesus' involvement in political life ("The Political Dimension of Jesus' Activities," pp. 225-520). He argues convincingly that various admonitions of Jesus are not to be understood simply as personal ethics. For example, "Love your enemies" comes as a plural command, not singular (pp. 233-34). Therefore the teachings of Jesus had political consequences. Jesus anticipated a kingdom of God constituted without force and coercion by a ruler who served the people with humility (pp. 229, 240-42).

The usefulness of the other essays will depend on the interests of the reader. Philip Esler gives us a perceptive article on community formation using the parable of the Good Samaritan ("Jesus and the Reduction of Intergroup Conflict," pp. 185-205). He maintains that Jewish identification with the compassion of the third person walking by, a hated Samaritan, redefined and also created neighborliness. Esler speaks of the phenomenon as cross categorization. John J. Pilch, well known for his studies in the altered states of consciousness, insists that we must understand some aspects of the Gospels in terms of cross-cultural psychology (pp. 103-15). Following the patterns of the Mediterranean culture (at the time of New Testament), he sees the spirit experiences of Jesus as valid descriptions of a Near Eastern shaman (pp. 106-8). Annette Weissenrieder examines the Lukan narrative of the woman with the issue of blood from the perspective of Greco-Roman medical practice ("The Plague of Uncleanness? The Ancient Illness Construct 'Issue of Blood' in Luke 8:43-48," pp. 207-22). She believes that the Markan account stressed uncleanness, so that Jesus appeared as a redemptive priest, while in Luke Jesus becomes a healer.

The writers in this collection stress the importance of the social-scientific but warm that this is only one of several methods to be used in Jesus research. Aware of that warning, readers of Currents will find in this volume many useful insights regarding Jesus.

Graydon F. Snyder

Chicago, Illinois