7 - Social-scientific readings of the Bible

Summary

Some biblical scholars realised that to understand the historical, political and social background of the Vietnam War and found them in the social sciences. The works of this group were among the seminal studies for social-scientific readings of the Bible. Norman Gottwald used sociological and social-anthropological theory to argue that ancient Israel was not established by external immigration, but by social conflicts within Canaanite society. Initially social-science readings primarily employed theories and models from sociology and social anthropology. The focus on foreignness made social anthropology more relevant than sociology based on studies of modern societies. The emphasis on the foreignness of the biblical texts represents a contrast to the hermeneutics of Rudolf Bultmann, who saw the similarities in understanding of life between the New Testament and its modern readers. One of the strongest criticisms of social-science approaches as they have been practised by male scholars has come from feminist perspectives.