(Czachesz, 2011b, 2011c), I have identified three sources of weak social ties in
the emergent Christian movement, in particular. First, some members of the
movement opted for an itinerant lifestyle; second, the practice of charity
helped the formation of weak ties with outsiders; third, being (relatively)
gender-inclusive, Christian communities created opportunities for both gen-
ders to connect their respective networks. For the sake of simplicity, in this
chapter I will focus on the activity of itinerants. However, it has to be noted
that in network theory the physical distance overcome by apostles, the
ethnic, cultural, or social distances overcome by charity, and the social
distance overcome by uniting male- and female-dominated institutions are
mostly equivalent. A“long-distance”connection in network theory simply
means a connection between loosely connected parts of the network,
a bridging connection that is likely to be a weak social tie in terms of
Granovetter’stheory.^1
The gospels encourage the formation of weak social links by relativizing the
importance of traditional social bonds and idealizing itinerancy (cf. section
8.2). Although it has been debated whether such motifs in the sources truly
represent social reality, at least we can say that they advertised mobility as an
ideal. Ample references to actual mobility are found in the epistles of Paul,
who tirelessly founded and visited Christian communities throughout Asia
Minor and Greece. He maintained regular contact with Christians in Antioch,
which probably served as his home base (Gal. 2), and at least occasionally
visited Jerusalem (Gal. 1–2), the center of Palestinian Christianity. Many of his
epistles end with a list of greetings (Rom. 16; 1 Cor. 16), in which Paul and
members of the community where the letter was written send their greetings
to individuals in the community to which the letter was addressed. Since Paul
moved about so much, he was prevented from maintaining many strong social
links, but it enabled him to develop a great number of weak ties with
individuals in a variety of geographical and social locations. In his epistles,
Paul also refers to other visitors and itinerants. He had a number of deputies
(such as Silas, Timothy and Titus) who traveled, carried messages and
delivered (possibly also co-authored) his letters. Other apostles traveled, as
well, some of them even taking their spouses with them (1 Cor. 9:5). Yet
another group of travelers are identified as Paul’s adversaries or“false apos-
tles”(Gal. 1:6, 2:4, 3:1; 2 Cor. 11). These other missionaries probably also had
helpers and built social networks similar to Paul’s. For example, in 2 Corinth-
ians, Paul denounces some of his adversaries for carrying“letters of recom-
mendation”(2 Cor. 3:1), which could actually contain the same kind of
(^1) The case of gender-roles is somewhat special, since wife and husband, for example, form
strong social ties. Behavioral studies suggest, however, that women tend to exploit the potential
of weak social ties better than men (Taylor et al., 2000; Mazure & Maciejewski, 2003; Story &
Repetti, 2006).
190 Cognitive Science and the New Testament