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A Methodological Guide for Social Scientific Inquiry into Earliest Christianity

Author: 
Year:
Pages:100
ISBN:1-4955-0662-2
978-1-4955-0662-8
Price:$99.95
Dr. Blasi's book is guide for helping social scientists conduct social scientific research in the early history of Christianity. It also serves to help New Testament scholars to appreciate social scientific methodology and study. It is an interdisciplinary guide to expand the scholarly knowledge and research into early Christianity.

Reviews

“The present book offers a most needed instrument for addressing challenges inherent in the task a sociologist undertakes when dealing with New Testament texts and testimonies. Blasi has organized a helpful toolkit after his own intensive engagement with that material and applying his sociological expertise. From this abundant and learned experience, those same tools can be applied for further research by anybody who ventures into that fascinating and intriguing world.”
Dr. Llius Oviedo,
Pontificia Universita Antonianum


"Analyses of the social world of early Christianity are enhanced when research has a good command of the methodological tools employed by sociologists and New Testament scholars. In this volume Anthony Blasi provides an overview of key essential methodologies in each discipline that can be accessed for their applicability in a wide range of analytical settings. These methodologies are engaged in a dialectical manner as one explores the meaning evoked by the written texts associated with the development of early Christianity."
Dr. Robert A. Wortham,
North Carolina Central University


Table of Contents

Foreword by Lluis Oviedo

Author's Introduction

1. Methodology

Methodology versus Methods
Methodological Paradigms
Theoretical Literature for Sociological Concepts
Which Paradigms, When
Tradition Texts

2. Methods, Part One

Translating
Chronological Layers
Greek Style
Using the Library System
Approaching the Text
Source Criticism
Sociological Concepts Coming to Mind

3. Methods, Part Two

External Evidence
Internal Evidence
Identifying Authors
Social Characteristics of Authors and Audiences
Content Analysis
Computer Assisted Tasks

4. Writing for Scholarly Audiences

New Testament Scholars
Social Scientists
Writing for Different Specialists

References

Index