I. Values and human relationships Activity:
 Middle East: Group > hierarchy/lineal  > individual

A. Group (see Joshua 24:15; Acts 16:14-15, 25-43)

Mark 1:16-20  (see 2:13-14)

Mark 2:1-12

Mark 3:6,  21

Mark 3:13-19

Mark 3:31-35

Mark 9:38-41

Mark 10:35-45

B. Hierarchy

Mark 9:33-37
Mark 11:27-33
Mark 12:13-17

C. Individual

 1. List the names of all the people Jesus healed in Mark (1:32; 1:40; 2:3; 3:1, 10; 5:2, 25; 7:32; 8:22; 10:46).Do you see names or stereotypes? What would you conclude?

 2. Collectivistic (or dyadic, or socio-centric, or group-centered) personalities are difficult for individualists to recognize. Yet 80% of the people on the face of this planet are collectivistic personalities.
 Compare: Mark 8:34-38//Matt 16:24-28//Luke 9:23-27
 with                          Matt 10:37-38//Luke 14:25

Collectivistic persons: help and support; Mediterranean notion of conscience.

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"That Americans hold false uniqueness bias/ unrealistically positive views of self so that the vast majority of people think they are in the very top minority on a range of skills is by now a well established empirical finding."  Quoted from an unpublished research report to the Society for Cross Cultural Research [2001] by Lotte Thomsen, James Sidanius, and Alan Fiske who cite as evidence: Markus, Hazel and Shonobu Kitayama.  "Culture and the Self: implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation." Psychological Review 98 (1991) 224-253.
 
 

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Further reading:

Augsburger, David W. Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986. Especially Chapter 3, pp. 79-110.

Hofstede, Geert. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in World-Related Values. Abridged Edition. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1984. Especially Chapter 5, pp. 148-175.

Pilch, John J., “Psychological and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Interpreting the Bible in Social Scientific Context,” Biblical Theology Bulletin 27(1997): 112-116

Pilch, John J.  Stephen: Paul and the Hellenist Israelites:  Paul's Social Network: Brothers and Sisters in Faith.  Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2008.  See chapter 2: Stephan, A Collectivist.  Pp. 17-35.