Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FAITH AND THE HISTORICAL JESUS §4.6
comitant emergence of liberation theology. 130 The revival and mature flourishing
of the sociological quest is evident in two contributions in particular.
a. Gerd Theissen
To Gerd Theissen must go the credit for making the first effective attempt to study
NT texts from a sociological perspective. 131 With regard to Jesus, he argued that
'The sayings tradition is characterized by an ethical radicalism that is shown most
noticeably in the renunciation of a home, family, and possessions'. 132 In a larger
sequel he broadened his perspective from a sociology of literature to a study of the
sociology of the Jesus movement, whose objective he defined as 'to describe typical
social attitudes and behaviour within the Jesus movement and to analyse its interaction
with Jewish society in Palestine generally'. 133 The resultant picture is
broader too, with a chapter on 'the wandering charismatics', but one also on their
'sympathizers in the local communities', thus providing a more balanced portrayal
than in the earlier lecture. Nonetheless, the focus is still on the former, the
tone set by the opening claim of the chapter on the wandering charismatics: 'Jesus
did not primarily found local communities, but called into being a movement of
wandering charismatics'. The local communities in turn 'are to be understood exclusively
in terms of their complementary relationship to the wandering
charismatics'. 134 The primary importance of these radical itinerants is further emphasized
in that it was they who shaped and handed down the earliest Jesus tradition.
135 The nearest parallels to this 'movement of outsiders' were the numerous
wandering Cynic philosophers and preachers. 136
As is the case with many ground-breaking contributions, Theissen's socio-
130. See particularly J. Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator: A Historical-Theological Reading
of Jesus of Nazareth (ET Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993).
131. 'The sociology of literature investigates the relations between written texts and human
behaviour' — the opening words of 'Wanderradikalismus: Literatursoziologische Aspekte
der Überlieferung von Worten Jesu im Urchristentum', ZTK1Q (1973) 245-71; ET 'The Wandering
Radicals: Light Shed by the Sociology of Literature on the Early Transmission of Jesus
Sayings', Social Reality 33-59 (here 33). There followed a sequence of studies on Paul (1 Corinthians)
which had a similar impact on Pauline studies; see further vol. 2.
132. 'Wandering Radicals' 37-40.
133. Soziologie der Jesusbewegung: Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte des
Urchristentums (Munich: Kaiser, 1977), ET The First Followers of Jesus: A Sociological Analysis
of the Earliest Christianity (London: SCM, 1978) = Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978) 1.
134. First Followers 8, 22.
135. First Followers 8, 10.
136. First Followers 14-15; also 'Wandering Radicals' 43-44.
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