In this article, the author traces four trajectories in which early Christian identity formation has been studied in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: ethnicity, theology, social-scientific, and literary. The author concludes by suggesting a way forward that includes interdisciplinary work that combines the insights of these four trends.
Bauer, Walter1934Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im Ältesten Christentum (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr).
2.
1971Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity ( Philadelphia: Fortress).
3.
Baumgarten, Michael1852Die Apostelgeschichte: Oder der Entwickelungsgang der Kirche von Jerusalem bis Rom. (3 vols.; Halle: Schwetschke und Sohn).
4.
1854The Acts of the Apostles; or, the History of the Church in the Apostolic Age (Edinburgh: T & T Clark).
5.
Baur, F.C.1878The Church History of the First Three Centuries (London : Williams and Nor-gate).
6.
Campbell, William S.2006Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity ( New York: T & T Clark).
7.
Carter, Warren1994Households and Discipleship: A Study of Matthew 19-20 ( Sheffield: JSOT).
8.
2000Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis).
9.
Culpepper, R. Alan1983Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel: A Study in Literary Design ( Philadelphia: Fortress).
10.
Dunn, James D.G.1990Jesus, Paul, and the Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox).
11.
2006Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox [1977]).
12.
Esler, Philip F.1998Galatians (New York: Routledge).
13.
2003a Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul’s Letter (Minneapolis: Fortress). 2003b ‘Ezra-Nehemiah as a Narrative of (Re-Invented) Israelite Identity’, BibInt11: 413-26.
14.
Esler, Philip Francis, and Ronald A. Piper2006Lazarus, Mary and Martha: Social-Scientific Approaches to the Gospel of John (Minneapolis: Fortress).
15.
Faulkner, Anne2005‘Jewish Identity and the Jerusalem Conference: Social Identity and Self-Categorization in the Early Church Communities’, ESharp. 1. http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_41174_en.pdf
16.
Hakola, Raimo1999‘A Character Resurrected: Lazarus in the Fourth Gospel and Afterwards’, in David Rhoads and Kari Syreeni (eds.), Characterization in the Gospels: Reconceiving Narrative Criticism (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press).
17.
Judge, E.A.2008‘The Social Identity of the First Christians: A Question of Method in Religious History’, in David M, Scholer (ed.), Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson).
18.
Kee, H.C.1980Christian Origins in Sociological Perspective ( Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox).
19.
Kelley, Shawn2002Racializing Jesus: Race, Ideology, and the Formation of Modern Biblical Scholarship (London: Routledge).
20.
Kuecher, Aaron2008‘The Spirit and the "Other": Social Identity, Ethnicity and Intergroup Reconciliation in Luke-Acts’ (PhD dissertation, University of St. Andrews).
21.
Lieu, Judith2002Neither Jew nor Greek?: Constructing Early Christianity ( London: T & T Clark).
22.
2004Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World ( Oxford: Oxford University Press).
23.
Marohl, Matthew J.2008Faithfulness and the Purpose of Hebrews: A Social Identity Approach ( Eugene, OR: Pickwick).
24.
Martyn, J. Louis2003History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel ( New York: Harper & Row).
25.
Moore, George Foot1921‘Christian Writers on Judaism’, HTR14: 197-254.
26.
1927Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era, the Age of the Tannaim (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
27.
Ritschl, Albrecht1857Die Entstehung der Altkatholischen Kirche: Eine Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichtliche Monographie (Bonn: A. Marcus, 2nd edn).
28.
Robinson, James M., and Helmut Koester1971Trajectories through Early Christianity ( Philadelphia: Fortress).
29.
Sanders, E.P.1977Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Philadelphia: Fortress ).
30.
1983Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People (Philadelphia : Fortress).
31.
Sanders, Jack T.1993Schismatics, Sectarians, Dissidents, Deviants: The First One Hundred Years of Jewish-Christian Relations (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International).
32.
Simon, Marcel1986Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations between Christians and Jews in the Roman Empire, 135-425 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
33.
Shkul, Minna2008‘Reading Ephesians: Exploring Social Entrepreneurship in the Text’ (PhD dissertation, University of Sheffield ).
34.
Weber, Ferdinand Wilhelm1897Jüdische Theologie auf Grund des Talmud ( Leipzig: Dörffling und Franke).
