Christian identity is an important key to understanding the development of the earliest Christianity from a Jewish renewal movement centered on Jesus as God's Anointed to a distinct new religion with a major Gentile membership and some major differences from its Jewish matrix. Identity is not simply a collection of beliefs but rather participation in the founding stories, in cults and rituals as well as in ethical teachings and behavioral norms, crystallized into social relations and institutions. This is a dynamic feedback process, full of conflicts and difficulties, both internal and caused by the surrounding society and culture. Among the many approaches used in this book are investigations of social memory, labeling and social cognition, moral teaching and gender.With contributions by:Samuel Byrskog, Bengt Holmberg, Fredrik Ivarsson, Rikard Roitto, Anders Runesson, Mikael Tellbe, Runar Thorsteinssonweiterlesen