Socio-Historical Approaches Sample Clauses

Socio-Historical Approaches. Xxxx Xxxxxxxx and Xxxx Xxxxxx In the 1970s a concern for the quotidian social world behind the text emerged. In contrast to studies that focus primarily on the history and theology of the Christian movement, socio-historical approaches analyze the social and cultural dimensions of the text as they relate to the everyday life of the original author(s) and readers.44 Socio- historical approaches examine these dimensions in order to understand and interpret the written text as a reflection and response to the settings in which the text was produced.45 Xxxx Xxxxxxxx’x pioneering essays on Xxxxxxx Christianity engage and interpret various portions of 1 Corinthians from the social matrix out of which the letter arose.46 Among these, Xxxxxxxx examines the Corinthians’ divergent positions concerning idol 43 Fee, First Epistle, 423-24. 44 Xxxx Xxxxxx, What is Social-Scientific Criticism? (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1983), 7. 45 Xxxxxx, Social-Scientific Criticism, 8. 46 Xxxx Xxxxxxxx, The Social Setting of Xxxxxxx Christianity: Essays on Corinth by Xxxx Xxxxxxxx (ed. and trans. Xxxx X. Xxxxxx; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982). meat through the lens of wealth and social standing.47 In contrast to the theological divergences that scholarship before Xxxxxxxx oft attributed to the cause of division at Corinth, Xxxxxxxx proposes that the socio-economic distinctions engendered the divide. Wealth and social standing, opposed to theological viewpoints, most centrally affected eating habits. The wealthier, higher stratum of strong community members reflects those who are more comfortable eating idol meat. These individuals would have encountered many social opportunities to eat consecrated meat–including both private and public “secular” contexts.48 Higher stratum individuals may have routinely purchased meat from the market and accepted invitations to meals at the homes of their wealthy friends simply as a part of their daily social life. These private, non-religious encounters with meat would detach their conception of meat from a numinous, religious quality. The lower stratum (i.e., the weak), however, would have only had access to meat through occasional, public cult meals hosted by the city or state.49 Because the weak only had interaction with meat at religious celebrations, eating meat and worshipping idols must have been closely connected for them. Xxxxxxxx’x observations influence his interpretive decisions about 1 Cor 8-10. First, he judges that both 8:1-13 a...