Burton Mack has made a number of important contributions to the study of early Christianity. One of, if not the most significant of these contributions is his use of the analytical categories of mythmaking and social formation in his construction of a social theory of religion. The analysis of mythmaking and social formation in early Christianity brings a critical historical and sociological focus to the study of Christian origins by focusing on the literary aspects of ancient texts, and the social aspects of ancient people and groups, and the dialectical relationship between the two categories. This article reviews the uses and criticisms of the categories of mythmaking and social formation in the study of early Christianity: beginning with Mack's work on a social theory of religion and his seminal study of the Gospel of Mark (A Myth of Innocence), and moving on to studies that have both taken up and critiqued Mack's use of the terms.

中文翻译：

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早期基督教研究中的神话创造与社会形成

伯顿·麦克（Burton Mack）为早期基督教的研究做出了许多重要贡献。这些贡献中，即使不是最重要的贡献之一，是他在构建宗教社会理论时运用了神话创造和社会形成的分析类别。通过对古代文本的文学方面，古代人和群体的社会方面以及两者之间的辩证关系的关注，对早期基督教中神话和社会形成的分析为基督教起源的研究提供了重要的历史和社会学重点。类别。本文回顾了早期基督教研究中对神话创造和社会形成类别的使用和批评：以马克