Alicia J. Batten has provided a nice introduction to a much neglected topic over at Bible Odyssey:Fishing Economy in the Sea of Galilee
This is one of those topics that I see referred to in many books about Jesus but with little support. Just another reason why Bible Odyssey should be a well-trafficked resource by undergraduates and seminarians.
-anthony
Expanding on that, are thousands of "Functionalist" books and articles in the social sciences, including psychology. They suggested that various elements of our cognition and culture, survive because deeper down they had some kind of practical material function. So religion for example strengthens group unity, etc...
ReplyDeleteThis interfaces with Marxist notions that many things in religion and culture served to maintain the values and status of an elite. Who wanted an ordered body of workers.
It would be interesting to hear more from James Crossley and St. Mary's, on the political, economic side of religion.
ReplyDeleteYou mean more than the multiple books and articles he's written on the topic?
DeleteThe functionalist and Marxist socio economic models of Christianity have been to many, the main core of the social science approach to religion. To gain any credibility as a "Social Science" department, St. Mary's needs to address it at length.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous, thanks for this, as we're always looking for people who won't sign their names to their comments to assess the credibility of our research centre. However, how does this have anything to do with St Mary's at all? This post was written by the one blogger on the Jesus Blog that doesn't work for St Mary's.
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