Reading “Scripture” with A Social Identity Lens

Introduction

In the previous session, we briefly reviewed what “Scripture” is and what it means to “us”. The take away key points are:

The take away key points are:

The take away key points are:

All Scripture

Inspired by God

Profitable

Purposeful

The entire Bible came from God in order to show us how to live. We also see the social identity group (in-group / out-group) in the personal significance reflection to the “Scripture”.

So, what exactly is social identity? In this session, we will have a brief overview of social identity, and continue learn about reading “Scripture” with a social identity lens, which is mainly based on my limited understanding of Dr. Tucker (“Reading 1 Corinthians,” 2017) and from Jacob Townsend’s lecture on social identity formation (Tucker & Baker, HSINT, 2014).

A Brief Overview of Social Identity

1. What is Social Identity?

“Social identity will be understood as that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership.” (Tajfel, “Categorization, Identity, Comparison,” 63),

Henri Tajfel, was a founder of the social identity theory and a Polish Jew who served in the French army during WW-II. He was captured by the Germans as a prisoner of war. However, Tajfel survived because he was thought as a French rather than a Jew. (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 13)

Personal Significance:

Does social identity matter to you? “die” or “live”? Tajfel’s real-life story is proof that social identity matters to me. This reminds me that the spiritual “die-to-live” in Christ identity.

2. What is a Group?

A group is two or more people perceived of as a group; social identities begin with the formation of group / groups. Below are the three key components in which people form into groups (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 17)

Cognitive component: Has knowledge that one belongs to a group.

Evaluative component: Being a part of a group carries a negative or positive value connotation.

Emotional component: Being a member of a group may direct emotions toward one’s own group and towards others which stand in certain relations to it.

Group Actions:

Within a group (intragroup), people attempt to create or preserve ingroup members’ distinctiveness in terms of salience / common / uniform behavior from outgroup, or ignore individual differences of outgroup members, extreme ethnocentrism can create intergroup bias and conflict.

Personal Significance:

What are some of the example in your life may reflect your group identity and actions? What are intergroup bias’ that you may not realize?

3. Examples of Group:

There are many groups that existed in ancient history and our modern society based on social-economic, political, religion and ethnic identity. Simply look at our church locally, within Oak pointe campus, we have many groups, such as:

Gender: Men, Women

Marital: Single, Married, Divorced, Widows

Race: White, Black, Spanish, Asian

Age: Adult, Kids, Infant

Student: Elementary, Middle and High school Student

Faith: Believer, Seeker, Non-believer

Service: Elder, Pastor, Group Leader, Volunteer.

Pastoral: Sr. Pastor, Community Pastor, Student Pastor, Mission Pastor, etc.

Social Comparison:

As you may see the two columns above, that the social categorization and social identity is linked together by social comparison. (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 19)

Personal Significance:

I am confused with my own identity outwardly since I was born in China, migrated to Canada later in life and now live in the United States.

Am I Chinese? No, I am no longer hold a Chinese passport, but I was born and raised within Chinese culture and society

Am I Canadian? Yes. That is my current nationality, but I live in America and look Chinese

Am I American? No. I do not have a US passport yet, but I am legal resident of America and again, still look Chinese

You may see the disconnection above, However, my social identity of being an Asian married men, who is also a believer, only make sense in the self-categorization of gender, race, faith and marital status in social comparison with intergroup / intragroup context.

Reading “Scripture” with A Social Identity Lens

1. Relevance of Social Identity

“Tajfel’s identification of ‘ingroup’ and ‘outgroup’ distinctions consequently has the potential to offer much to scholarly understanding of intergroup relations in ancient Mediterranean society.” (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 44)

The “Scripture” frequently speaks in the language of groups. Especially the first-century Mediterranean societies that were significantly stratified and categorized by group identities, with a large measure of discrimination between groups. (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 44) Such as:

Such as:

Slave / Free

Rich / Poor

Greek / Roman

Jew / Gentile

Under the Law / Outside the law

Weak / Strong

Within the category of Jewish religious party, Jewish philosophy takes three forms in ancient Israel history. (Gundry, A Survey of the New Testament, 86)

● Pharisees: “A Jewish religious party who required strict adherence to the Law and the traditions of their predecessor.” In the NT Gospels, the Pharisees appear as the chief opponents of the Lord, whom they attacked, such as for forgiving sins, breaking the Sabbath, and consorting with sinners,

● Sadducees: “A Jewish religious party who recognized the Torah as the only divine authority and rejected resurrection. They were part of the ruling elite with religious and political responsibilities connected with the Temple.”

● Essenes: “A Jewish religious party who saw themselves as the true people of God and retreated to the desert to practice purity and devotion until the coming of the Lord.” (above three point refer to Witthoff, The Lexham Cultural Ontology Glossary, 2014).

Personal Significance:

the “Scripture” was originally written to somebody else, who lived a long time ago, in another part of world, where they spoke a different language and had different social identities and cultural values. (Klein et. al, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, 44). Therefore, in order to better understand the meaning of the Scripture back then, and apply that meaning to our life today, we must understand the ancient history setting, cultural, social, political, religion and ethnic identity context. Social identity plays a big role in terms of textual social historical context.

2. Social Identity in the “Scripture”

There will countless references which we may find through textual studies of the “Scripture”. Here are just a few examples abstract from Tucker & Coleman (HSINT, 2016) or otherwise stated.

a. In the Books of Gospel:

A social identity interpretation of the Matthaean Beatitudes ()

Matthew 5:3–12 ESV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matt 5 3-12

Jesus teaching in parables reflect to different groups ()

Mark 4:11–12 ESV

11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”

Filial piety, neighbor-love, and non-violence (; )

Luke 6:32–35 ESV

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

luke 6

Jesus’s Prototype and Pontius Pilate ()

John 18:33–37 ESV

33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

John 18:33–38 ESV

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

33-38

b. In the other NT books:

Paul begins seeking the good of his enemies (; ; )

Jews and Gentiles both share Abraham as father and exemplar of ingroup identity ()

Mission as social identification () (Tucker, “1 Corinthians”, 88-105)

New creation and temporal comparison in social identity formation ()

Depiction of the church’s early struggle for community-identity ()

How to form a Christian identity ()

Ephesian’s subgroups: false teachers, windows & elders (; ;)

The continuation of existing identities - dual identity both in flesh and in the Lord ()

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 ESV

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

It’s interesting that the pattern of the different social identify group:

“Free from all, … servant to all, … win more (vs to all) …”

“To …, I became …, that I may win …”

“To all, … became all, … might save/win more (vs tot all) …”

“To all, … do it all, … for sake of the gospel/bless, … with all …”

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews

- Paul’s status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman

To those under the law I became as one under the law, that I might win those under the law.

- though not being myself under the law

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, that I might win those outside the law.

- not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ)

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

……

To all, I have become all things to all people, that I might save some (not all).

Personal Significance:

We see the example of Scripture involved social identity formation throughout the New Testament. This is just one of the lenses we adopt when we read the “Scripture, in addition to Biblical Theology and Systematical Theology lens, etc.

3. What Social Identity Means to Reading "Scripture” Contemporary?

The different social identities groups that interact positively or negatively can provide practical application today within our local church. It is important to note, however, there might be differences between the ancient and the contemporary context setting in the follow: (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 44)

The extent to which one’s self-esteem dictated group or subsumed by group

The degree to which one able to self-determine their groups

The extent to which group could capitalize on discrimination against other groups

One often perceived by others as stereotypical once the group identity was known.

Significant opportunity that likelihood of social change.

Scholar suggested a fruitful approach is combining social history and social theory. That is: “for historians, social theory provides a framework for interpreting the evidence, and for theoreticians, social history provides the evidence needed to substantiate their purported theoretical claims.” (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 58)

Interpretation hierarchy:

Primary source: NT texts, the “Scripture”

Secondary source: Extrabiblical historical data

Tertiary source: Social History

Embracing social theory in interpretation of New Testament Scripture can help apply these theories in modern context. However, scholars have recognized that this is a “descriptive” and not a “prescriptive,” so long as the limitation of historical distance and historical data are appreciated, these descriptive insights are helpful for NT studies.

For example, Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, concerns about eating food offered to idols and civic engagement () may provide helpful insight into group belief systems with efforts to persuade and influence others. (Tucker & Coleman, HSINT, 46)

Personal Significance:

Right belief and right conduct is all based on “Scripture”, the words of God, the Bible texts as primary source. The social history and social theory in study of social identity helps us as additional source to study the “Scripture”.

Since Bible scholars are, most likely, not professional social psychologists, community hermeneutics need to be collaborative with social psychologists, social historians, social theoreticians, anthropologist, archaeologist, … etc. This will help us understand the “Scripture” better as the original author intended in the social-historical context and apply it in our life today accordingly.

This will help us understand the “Scripture” better as the original author intended in the social-historical context and apply it in our life today accordingly.

Summary:

We have reviewed the essential, basic concepts of social identity with examples. We also analyzed the method to reading “Scripture” while using the social identity lens in consideration of modern significance.

Social identity continues to be relevant. We all have different cultures, geographic origins, or social normality. We hold different moral/ethnic values as our ingroup social identity. It is harder for us to convince one another in this dynamically changing world, especially with intergroup relations within certain extreme outgroup (like LGBT), the outwardly identity may vary and divide us.

Yet, as we read “Scripture”, while using a social identity lens, the inwardly “in-Christ” identity holds and unifies humanity in the body of Christ; the unity of God’s kingdom, the new creation as child of God, and the Holy Spirit hold us together. Jesus paid for our sins once and for all even we are sinners. Our social identity transforms/re-configures/re-prioritizes in-Christ identity as a believer.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” ( ESV)

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Question:

How may the social identity lens help you reading and understanding God’s word better?

I was confused with my outwardly group social identity as mentioned earlier. How about you?

Would you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and the Lord to transformed to “in Christ” identity?

Bibliography

Klein, William W., Craig L. Blomberg and Robert L. Hubbard. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Third Edition. Grand Rapid, MI: Zondervan, 2017.

Gundry, Robert. A Survey of the New Testament, Fifth Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.

Esler, Philip. “An Outline of Social Identity Theory.” In T & T Clark Handbook to Social Identity in the New Testament, edited by Tucker, J. Brian and Coleman A. Baker, 13-40. London: T & T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2016.

Clarke, Andrew D. and J. Brian Tucker. “Social History and Social Theory in the Study of Social Identity.” In T & T Clark Handbook to Social Identity in the New Testament, edited by Tucker, J. Brian and Coleman A. Baker, 41-58. London: T & T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2016.

Tajfel, Henri. “Social Categorization, Social Identity and Social Comparison.” In Differentiation between Social Groups, edited by Henri Tajfel. European Monographs in Social Psychology. London: Academic, 1978.

Tucker, J. Brian. Reading 1 Corinthians. Eugene: Cascade, 2017.

Tucker, J. Brian and Coleman A. Baker. T & T Clark Handbook to Social Identity in the New Testament. London: T & T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2016.