discuss the cultural transmission of moral teachings and examples, paying
attention to ancient biographical patterns as well as Jewish and Christian
instructions to imitate moral examples.
In Chapter 9, I examine the interface of cognitive and social factors in the
spread of early Christianity. In thefirst part of the chapter, I discuss how early
Christian preferences for itinerancy, the inclusion of women and the practice
of charity shaped the social networks of the movement and how the new
network structures influenced the spread of ideas. In the second part of the
chapter, I discuss the philosophy of computer modeling and introduce
the programming language NetLogo. In the final part of the chapter,
I present a simple computer model of the growth of Christianity, and show
how experimentation with the model leads to interesting insights about the
spread of the Christian movement, including the role of itinerancy and the
significance of learning strategies.
In Chapter 10, I offer hermeneutical reflections on the cognitive approach
presented in the book. I discuss, in particular, the significance of the cognitive
approach in connection with three possible uses of the biblical texts, that is, the
text as window, mirror, and image, respectively. I show how the cognitive
approach offers fresh insights for each hermeneutical perspective, and
consider the ramifications of the cognitive approach for historical, reader
oriented, and text-centered biblical interpretation.
There are different ways to read this book. If you are particularly impatient,
you can read Chapters 1, 2, and 10 to get the gist of the argument. If you are
interested only in some particular aspect of the cognitive approach, reading
Chapters 1 through 3 provides a good foundation before proceeding to any
other chapter or selection of chapters. Note, however, that the order of the
chapters has been selected for a reason, so it is a good idea to stick to it if you
plan to read the entire book anyway.
Introduction 7