Biblical and Socio-Scientific Approaches to Religious Enmity

Introduction

CHRISTOPHER A. PORTER AND ELIZABETH E. SHIVELY

1 Reflections from Social Identity Theory on Authoritarianism, Fundamentalism, and Narratives of Nationalism and Multiculturalism: From Ezra/Nehemia/Ruth to the Post-Colonial Era

KENNETH I. MAVOR

2 From Enmity to Empathy: Paul and (Re)-Defining the Boundaries of “Us-ness”

J. BRIAN TUCKER

3 Adjustments to Mirror Reading: Finding Opponents, or Just an Audience, from a Text

LAURA J. HUNT

4 Reconciliation and Joseph’s “Power Over” His Brothers in Genesis 50:15–21

LACHLAN DAVIS

5 Figuring a Leader: The Depiction of Abijah in 2 Chronicles 13 as Reinforcing Intra-Group Enmity

PETER HON WAN LAU

6 Identity and Inclusion in Mark’s Gospel: The Case of Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman (Mark 7:24–30)

ELIZABETH E. SHIVELY

7 Desertion or Exclusion: Relationships with the Outgroup in the Johannine Writings

CHRISTOPHER SEGLENIEKS

8 Staging Incest and Identifying the Enemy: Reading 1 Corinthians 5 in Light of the Black Sheep Effect and Ancient Theater

ADAM WHITE

9 “They Do Not Keep the Law” (Galatians 6:13): Forceful Circumcision and the Fruit of the Spirit

JOHN ANTHONY DUNNE

10 Restoring the Enemy? Considering the Pauline Imperative of Galatians 6:1

RYAN HEINSCH

11 Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul: Middle Management and the Mediation of Theological and Social Capital

CHRISTOPHER A. PORTER

12 Postcolonial Perspectives on Animosity and Enemies in Paul

JEREMY PUNT

13 Judaism, Judeo-phobia, and the Conversion of the Royal House of Adiabene

MICHAEL F. BIRD

14 Degradation Ceremonies and the Politics of the Vaccine Mandate: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Melbourne Construction Industry Protests, September 2021

AMY ISHAM

Biography

Christopher A. Porter is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Trinity College Theological School and Lead Investigator on the Figuring the Enemy project, investigating socio-scientific approaches to religious enmity, along with research focus on the Fourth Gospel and Acts from a social identity perspective.

Elizabeth E. Shively is Professor of Christian Scriptures at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and co-investigator on the socio-scientific stream of Figuring the Enemy Project. Her research focuses on the Gospel of Mark, narrative and rhetorical criticism, cognitive linguistics, and theological interpretation.

Kenneth I. Mavor is Senior Lecturer and Social Psychologist in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His research focuses on the nature of the personal and collective self, and how people cognitively manage multiple selves; the implications of social and personal identities for learning, belonging, and wellbeing in higher education; and the role of religious and political ideologies in social conflict and collective action.