Cognitive Science and the New Testament A New Approach to Early Christian Research

Computer models have become part of the standard methodological reper- toire of cognitive sciences and the use of computer model ...

using mathematical models, in recent yearsagent-based models(see section 9.3) have become the standard way to approach them. Pro ...

(Czachesz, 2011b, 2011c), I have identified three sources of weak social ties in the emergent Christian movement, in particular. ...

reference that Paul himself gives to Titus in the very same epistle (2 Cor. 8:16- 24).^2 TheDidacheallows us a glimpse into the ...

imagine the movement of agents in the environment of the model some- what similarly to the pieces of a board-game moving in a pr ...

Figure 9.1. The interface of the “Mission ” model. ...

the speed of execution, for example, to leave more time to observe details as necessary. The model world is shown on the right-h ...

The learning parameter of the model is designed to capture actual strategies that people adopt in cultural learning. Above in se ...

9.4 LEARNING FROM THE MISSION MODEL Let us now run the model a couple of times (preferably at slower speeds, which can be select ...

The number of followers on any given day can be calculated from the number of followers on the previous day, taking into conside ...

If we plot the logistic growth function, we receive a curve (called the “sigmoid”) that is fairly similar to the curve we can se ...

shape of the model world and the location of thefirst followers in the model world will also influence the exact pattern of grow ...

up tofifteen percent. At higher conversion-rates or at lower numbers of itinerants, the effect becomes minimal. This can be unde ...

conquered (almost) entirely some centuries later. In terms of our results, a few itinerants could make considerable difference i ...

section 8.5, however, human learning strategies are much more complex. The “probabilistic”learning strategy of our model takes i ...

analyze texts as well as test hypothetical scenarios about historical processes. Building on insights that we gained in former c ...

if ( ( count patches with [ pcolor = follower-color ] + count ( apostles ) ) >= count patches ( mission-goal / 100 ) ) [ ; s ...

set pcolor apostle-color ; the converted household becomes inactive (otherwise two followers would be created) sprout-apostles 1 ...

10. Hermeneutical Reflections The methodology of textual interpretation is a time-honored topic in New Testament Studies. In the ...

I mentioned in section 1.4, the methods and theories developed and under development in the Cognitive Science of Religion can be ...