Memetakan dunia sosial Alkitab: John Gager dan Robert Carroll

Abstract

Sociological or social approaches were introduced in the field of biblicalinterpretation between 1975-1985. But the problem was how to see it: as one of theperspectives in looking at the meaning of ancient texts, or as a new, “social-scientificcriticism” which may replace to old theological-historical approach. The writer tends tosee it as one of the perspectives, by examining several attempts to apply sociologicaltheories in biblical interpretation. One is a book by John Gager, Kingdom andCommunity, which deals with the text of the New Testament; another is Robert Carroll,When Prophecy Failed, which deals with the text of the Old Testament. Both apply thetheory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger, a social psychologist in theirrespective field of inquiry. The result is that the application of this social theory can befruitful if there is already a good grasp of the social background of the text which isreconstructed through acknowledgement of the difficulties of textual transmission. It goeswithout saying that sociological or social approaches can be done together withredaction-criticism of the former historical critical approach.