I am a New Testament and Christian Origins scholar who uses the social sciences to explore and illuminate the biblical texts and what their authors were trying to say. Here's how I use the social sciences:
The New Testament and other early Christian texts were written a long, long time ago in lands far away. We are separated from the biblical authors and their first audiences not by a generation gap, but by a double millennial gap. Studying the history, languages, societies and cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world helps to bridge that gap, it doesn't go far enough. Concepts from cross-cultural anthropology enable us to better understand the people who populate the pages of the Bible, giving us insight into why they did what they did and said what they said. For example, why does the third slave bury the talent in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30)? Because this was the safest way for an honorable person to guard someone else's money and avoid personal liability. For more information about the slave who buried the talent please read my book, Stewards, Prophets, Keepers of the Word.
Social memory studies help us understand how persons, families, tribes and even whole societies are shaped, consciously and unconsciously, by the past. Who we are today is heavily influenced by stories, rituals and artifacts that reconstruct and represent our history. For example, the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and Thomas all remember Jesus saying "blessed are...." Luke records 4, Matthew and Thomas both have 8 of these sayings. Paying attention to the differences points us to the values and aspirations of the communities that produced and transmitted these texts. To read more about social memory studies, please see my article in Biblical Theology Bulletin, November 2011 or my book, The Bible's Importance for the Church Today.
My recent research has included two topics: purity and ritual. I wrote a chapter called Purity, Dirt, Anomalies, and Abominations in Understanding the Social World of the New Testament (2009), and a chapter called Purity in The Ancient Mediterranean Social World -- A Sourcebook (2020). This research is also crossing over into my church work. Check Wholeness and Holiness at Sparkhouse.
My work on ritual is ongoing, but includes two presentations as biblical conferences, a chapter called Accessing Divine Knowledge in Early Christian Ritual Life (2018), and piece called Making the Sign of the Cross: To Do and To Undo about the protomartyr Thecla which I hope will eventually be published.
I have published two books, one primarily for a scholarly audience; Stewards, Prophets, Keepers of the Word: Leadership in the Early Church (2006). More information available here.
My other book is entitled The Bible's Importance for the Church Today (2009). This book would be interesting for both church leaders and lay people. More information about this book here.
My research is informed by and emerges from conversations with like-minded scholars, especially the members of the Context Group.