Michelle Nailon Csb

Towards a Sociological Interpretation of the Gospels Michelle Nailon Csb

Towards a Sociological Interpretation of the Gospels (50 pages) provides an introduction to a larger development of its ideas to be found in Is There a Critique of Greek Philosophy in the Gospels? It also provides an introduction to a semiotic gospel analysis that shows how Judaism and Hellenism are rooted in the underlying structure of Christianity. This book considers current approaches to Scripture interpretation, especially the Historical Critical Exegetical approach, as also the limitations of this. It also considers the situation in first century Palestine when the Jewish people, who based their society on the God-given moral law of the Commandments, were confronted with the Hellenism of the Roman Empire. Hellenistic culture, based on the rationalism of Greek Philosophy, "steam-rolled" over the cultures of the day. However Judaism managed to retain its own identity. It accepted Hellenistic culture even while distinguishing itself from it. It was Christianity that incorporated Hellenism, with its Platonic approach and its Aristotelian approach, into the fabric of its Jewish-based belief system. The book points to the need for a sociological method of gospel interpretation in order to demonstrate this.