using mathematical models, in recent yearsagent-based models(see section 9.3)
have become the standard way to approach them. Problems of segregation,
prejudice, cooperation, recruiting, cultural epidemiology, and other related
processes have been modeled (Bainbridge, 2006; Heimola, 2012; Czachesz &
Lisdorf, 2013; Lane, 2013). Third, building models that extract information from
religious texts (Lane, 2015; Czachesz, 2016a) is one of the very recent develop-
ments in the use of computer modeling. In this chapter, I will present a simple
agent-based model to discuss aspects of the early Christian mission.
9.2 WEAK SOCIAL TIES IN
EMERGING CHRISTIANITYSociologist Mark Granovetter suggested (Granovetter, 1973) that if two people
are connected by astrongsocial tie (to put it simply, they are friends), it is
likely that their respective social networks will largely overlap: many of A’s
friends and acquaintances will be also B’s friends or acquaintances, and vice
versa. The strength of an interpersonal tie is characterized by the amount of
time, emotional intensity, intimacy (mutual confiding), and reciprocal services
in the relationship. If two people are connected by aweaksocial tie (that is, by
acquaintance rather than friendship), the number of their shared friends and
acquaintances will be significantly smaller. The major importance of weak
links, Granovetter argued, is that they can serve asbridges, that is, as the only
links between two networks. On the one hand, if two individuals A and B are
connected by a strong tie, information (such as the latest gossip) can spread on
their overlapping friendship networks in many different ways, sometimes
including the link between A and B and sometimes via other routes. On the
other hand, if A and B are connected by a weak tie, it is possible that they have
no friends or acquaintances in common, and even their friends do not have
any friends or acquaintances in common, and so forth. In this case, any
information that originates with A’s friends will reach B’s friends only after
it hasfirst arrived from A to B at some point: the weak link between A and
B will be a bridging weak link, connecting two social networks that would be
otherwise unconnected. Granovetter’s theory of weak links has been tested in a
number of empirical studies. An important domain of application has been
the advantage of weak links on the job market. Granovetter found empirical
evidence that peoplefind new jobs with the help of individuals to whom they
are connected by weak links (acquaintances), because they provide new
information more often than close friends and relatives, who tend to be in
possession of the same information as the jobseeker.
An analysis of various documents of earliest Christianity suggests that the
movement generated weak social ties in many ways. In former publications
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