In the light of increasing interest in the use of the social sciences in Biblical Studies this research programme concentrates on the use of sociological theory and method in particular, but expands the role of sociology in Biblical studies to cover a number of distinct, yet related areas of interest. The extension of the role of sociology in Biblical studies is predicated on the notion that since sociology emerges from and seeks to address the rise of modernity, its nature and its possible futures, any use of sociology to understand the ancient social worlds of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, and the New Testament, involves appreciating the nature of the social realities in which we live and conducting a constant dialogue in which past and present are both needed to be interwoven but also kept separate. The past and present need to be kept separate so as to appreciate both the continuities and the ruptures between modern social forms and social life and social life in the past.

The Research Programme includes:

1. Sociology and Historical Reconstruction: The use of sociology for the analysis of biblical and related (especially Qumranic) texts for the reconstruction of ancient social worlds and processes of social change. Theoretical, methodological and substantive contributions are relevant.

2. Sociologists and the Bible: (a) the work of specific sociologists (e.g. Spencer, Durkheim, Weber and more recent sociologists such as Talcott Parsons, Barrington Moore and Harvey Sacks) and how they themselves sought to make sense of ancient Israel and emergent Christianity, and (b) analysing the texts of these sociologists for the manner in which they directly and indirectly make use of Biblical ideas, themes, tropes and metaphors in their sociological writing. The aim is to contextualise and understand the merits and limitations of their approaches to Biblical history, and to assess their contributions in the light of developments in Biblical studies (based on improved data as well as methodological advances) and in the light of contemporary social theory. A central question involves the extent to which sociologists disenchanted their moral worlds and how this process can be mapped through analysis of their use of the Bible.

3. The Sociology of The Bible in Historical and Contemporary Culture and Society: promoting (a) theoretical and empirical work, grounded in sociological method, concepts and theorisations, on the actual use by specific individuals and groups, especially in contemporary society, of the Bible in their everyday lives, for example in recovering previous ethnographic and survey work by sociologists, theologians and other agencies on individual and social use of the Bible; and (b) advancing methodological debate through field work application of sociological research methodologies and modes of theorising and gaining sociological understanding of the use and abuse of the Bible in various social settings such as kindergartens, schools, churches, Sabbath schools, sports, local and national political arenas.
This Research Programme will thus offer a space in which empirical work and its methodological issues can be discussed and presented and seek to raise the profile of such work and encourage further research.