New Testament Studies – Preventing or Promoting a Humane Society?

Abstract

In a brief overview of the power of religious ideas in church and society, it is shown that the New Testament not only constitutes Christian identity but as a master narrative also contributes to the moral formation of society. Faith, based on particular interpretations of these texts, moves minds and money and shapes society. Th e nature of New Testament Studies is investigated in that light. It is argued that critical New Testament Studies, which grew out of the centuries long maintenance of orthodoxy and the impact of the scientific revolution, are still dominated by exegesis of the twenty seven books but their most significant feature, it is pointed out, is the absence of the revolution in historical consciousness in both mainstream Western and African New Testament scholarship. Th ree case studies, historical Jesus research, the New Testament and the gay issue and finally the reading of ordinary people are used to evaluate whether current New Testament Studies are actually promoting or preventing the development of a humane society. It is argued that in all cases the absence of historical consciousness contributes to serious shortcomings in these studies. In the final section an apology for an interdisciplinary constitution of New Testament and Early Christian Studies within the humanistic tradition is offered as a resistance against its isolation in the Human Sciences and as a betterment of a humane society.