Vicarious dissonance and the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew

Authors

• Mikko Pisilä University of Eastern Finlad

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.70035

Keywords:

cognitive dissonance, vicarious dissonance, matthew, gospel, social identity, commitment, narrative

Abstract

This article presents a novel social-scientific approach to the Gospel of Matthew, one of the most influential texts in the history of Christianity. This approach combines social-psychological and narrative-critical methodology. The aim is to demonstrate how the gospel narrative functions to transform the social identity of its audience and stimulate group commitment via the social-psychological phenomenon of vicarious cognitive dissonance.