Abstract
This book introduces a relatively new approach to biblical studies, namely the use of social identity theory. The book is composed of an “Introduction” by the editors and two main parts: Methodological Studies, consisting of seven chapters and Textual Studies, consisting of twenty-one chapters.
The “Introduction” basically describes the contents of the volume, and it is left up to the chapters in Part 1 of the book to discuss the method and importance of social identity approaches. The contents of the Methodological Studies section are as follows: “An Outline of Social Identity Theory” (Philip F. Esler); “Social History and Social Theory in the Study of Social Identity” (Andrew D. Clarke and J. Brian Tucker); “Ethnicity and Social Identity (Aaron Kuecker); “Ritual and Social Identity: The Deutero-Pauline Shaping of Early Christianity” (Minna Shkul); “Letter Writing and Social Identity” (Matthew J. Marohl); “A Narrative-Identity Model for Biblical Interpretation: The Role of Memory and Narrative in Social Identity Formation” (Coleman A. Baker); and “Nodes of Objective Socialization and Subjective Reflection in Identity: Galatian Identity in an Imperial Context” (Robert L. Brawley). These essays in Part 1 largely describe the theories of Henry Tajfel (the “founding father” of Social Identity Theory [hereafter SIT]) and John Turner (who first proposed self-categorization theory [hereafter SCT]). Both of these social theorists held that people understand themselves in relation to groups to which they belong and groups of which they are not a part. Much of the detail of these theories is beyond the scope of this review, but a few details are key for what follows in the book. Tajfel argued that belonging to groups involved three elements: a cognitive awareness that one is part of the group; an evaluative component relating to (positive or negative) affection of being part of the group; and an emotional component (how members feel about and act toward other members of the group). Turner posits that SCT involves internalizing social identities (e.g. gender, ethnicity, religion) in order to perform these social identities. Exemplars (real and imaginary) represent the values of the identities toward which group members strive. When groups come into conflict, one possible solution is the creation of a superordinate identity that does not do away with the differences between the groups but seeks to create an identity with which members can all identify. One of the most common ways of creating such an identity is to appeal to a shared past.
The second part of the book, Textual Studies, is composed of the following chapters: “Group Norms and Prototypes in Matthew 5:3–12: A Social Identity Interpretation of the Matthean Beatitudes” (Philip F. Esler); “Suffering and the Creation of Christian Identity in the Gospel of Mark” (Paul Middleton); “Textual Orientations: Jesus, Written Texts, and the Social Construction of Identity in the Gospel of Luke” (Rafael Rodríguez); “Filial Piety and Violence in Luke-Acts and the Aeneid: A Comparative Analysis of Two Trans-Ethnic Identities” (Aaron Kuecker); “Social Identities, Subgroups, and John's Gospel: Jesus the Prototype and Pontius Pilate (John 18.28–19.16)” (Warren Carter); “Children of Abraham, the Restoration of Israel and the Eschatological Pilgrimage of the Nations: What Does it Mean for ‘In Christ’ Identity?” (Christopher Zoccali); “Social Identity and Conflict in Corinth: 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 in Context” (Mark Finney); “‘If Anyone is in Christ, New Creation: The Old Has Gone, the New has Come’ (2 Corinthians 5.17): New Creation and Temporal Comparison in Social Identity Formation in 2 Corinthians” (Kar Yong Lim); “Galatians 2.1–14 as Depiction of the Church's Early Struggle for Community-Identity Construction” (Atsuhiro Asano); “Adopted Siblings in the Household of God: Kinship Lexemes in the Social Identity Construction of Ephesians” (Daniel K. Darko); “Echoes of Paul's Philippians in Polycarp: Texts that Create Identity” (Sergio Rosell Nebreda); “New Identity and Cultural Baggage: Identity and Otherness in Colossians” (Minna Shkul); “Stereotyping and Institutionalization as Indications of Leadership Maintenance in the Pastoral Epistles: 1 Timothy as a Test Case” (Jack Barensten); “Paul's Particular Problem—The Continuation of Existing Identities in Philemon” (J. Brian Tucker); “Social Identity in the Epistle to the Hebrews” (Stephen Muir); “Calling on the Diaspora: Nativism and Diaspora Identity in the Letter of James” (K. Jason Coker); “‘Aliens’ among ‘Pagans’, ‘Exiles’ among ‘Gentiles’: Authorial Strategy and (Social) Identity in 1 Peter” (Todd D. Still and Natalie R. Webb); “The Agapé Feast in 2 Peter, Imperial Ideology, and Social Identity” (R. Alan Streett); “Identity in 1 John: Sinless Sinners who Remain in Him” (Rikard Roitto); “Constructing Identity in the Epistle of Jude” (Ritva H. Williams); and “Israelite Ethnic Identity Responding to the Roman Imperium in Revelation” (Markus Cromhout). A short review such as this one does not allow space for review of each essay; so I will limit myself to one especially promising essay and two essays that seem to reach opposite conclusions using similar methodologies.
Roitto's chapter on 1 John shows how the author presents the senders of the letter as exemplars for group behavior by distinguishing the senders from the recipients of the letter. At the same time, the senders seek a common identity with the recipients, all while labelling certain members of the group as “deviants” (e.g. 1 John 1:6–10 and 2:3–11). The language about sinless ingroup members (1 John 3:6, 9) functions not as an actual description of group members but as a rhetorical move to distinguish group members as significantly as possible from deviants within the group as well as hypothetical outsiders. SIT theory, on this reading, provides a context for understanding sinlessness as an identifying characteristic of group values even as it takes seriously the idea that some of the members of the group have “sinned” by failing to show love to other members of the group.
In employing SIT theory regarding the Deutero-Pauline letters, Minna Shkul suggests that the very different practices of ritualization in the Deutero-Pauline letters shows significant variation from the ways in which Paul ritualizes both baptism and Eucharist, the latter being “remarkably absent from these texts” (p. 84). This different type of ritualization shows different efforts at group formation and maintenance, and such a reading justifies the conclusion that these texts do not come from Paul. Jack Barenstein, in contrast, suggests that the different circumstances of group identity can account for 1 Timothy as a genuinely Pauline letter. Paul is presented in the letter as an exemplar of the group, and the details of his life are well-known by the group in Ephesus, particularly his close associate Timothy. The author works to combine the Ephesian Christ group and Paul's subgroup over against the false teachers.
This book is an interesting introduction to the usefulness of SIT and SCT for understanding New Testament texts. The focus of the book is largely upon ethnic and religious groups, with scant attention paid to gender. That leaves an opportunity for more work with this valuable approach. One concern I have with the work as a whole is the relative ease with which some of the authors seem to conceive of the groups against which early Jesus groups defined themselves as characterized straightforwardly in the texts of the New Testament. All groups go through processes of definition, and in so doing, they define themselves against other groups. One should be reluctant to take the descriptions of “others” as anything more than a rhetorical account of the norms and values rejected by the group. In other words, if a group wants to distinguish itself from another group, they are far more likely to focus upon areas of difference even if these areas are not central to how the “others” might define themselves. Given the relative paucity of information we have about these “other” groups, the temptation to reconstruct their identities through the materials we do have can be strong, but should be resisted. Overall, this book is an excellent introduction to SIT and SCT and the usefulness of each for assessing early Christian texts. Biblical scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates can all find material with which to work in this Handbook.