Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount

Rikard Roitto is Associate Professor, lecturer in biblical studies and education director of the theological programs at the Stockholm School of Theology. Colleen Shantz is Associate Professor in the area of New Testament Studies at St Michael's College, University of Toronto. Petri Luomanen is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Culture and Literature in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki.

• 1. Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount: Introduction Rikard Roitto, Colleen Shantz and Petri Luomanen PART 1: INDIVIDUAL COGNITION 2. It’s All in How You Look at It: The Eyes and Morality in Matt 6:22–23 Colleen Shantz 3. Perception of Risk in the Sermon on the Mount Rikard Roitto 4. Altruism and Prosocial Ideals in the Sermon: Between Human Nature and Divine Potential Thomas Kazen, University College Stockholm 5. Ritual Acts in the Sermon on the Mount Rodney A. Werline, Barton College, USA PART 2: TEXT AND COGNITION 6. Emotional Repression and Physical Mutilation? The Cognitive and Behavioural Impact of Exaggeration in the Sermon on the Mount Thomas Kazen 7. Parables in the Sermon on the Mount: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Perspective Lauri Thurén, University of Eastern Finland 8. Is There a Reason to Worry? A Pragma-Dialectical Analysis of Matthew 6:25‒34 Niilo Lahti, University of Eastern Finland PART 3: SOCIAL DYNAMICS9. Hypocrites and the Pure in Heart: Religion as an Evolved Strategy for In-Group Formation John Teehan, Hofstra University, USA 10. “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to Yahweh, and will be repaid in full” (Prov 19:17): Patterns of Indirect Reciprocity in the Book of Proverbs and in the Sermon on the Mount Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme, University of Copenhagen 11. Macarisms and Identity Formation: Insights from the Comparison of 4QBeatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount Elisa Uusimäki, University of Helsinki 12. Remembering the Sermon in the Mountains of France Alicia Batten, University of Waterloo