After the intertextual survey, Elliott turns to the social and cultural texture of 1 Peter. His first strategy of social analysis is to present a social profile of the addressees of 1 Peter.⁵⁹ The letter evokes this profile through reference to geographical location; ethnic composition; legal, economic, and social status; religious allegiance and the social form such religious affiliation assumes; and the nature and historical circumstances of the conflict in which they are involved. The second strategy is to seek the political, economic and social implications of "household."⁶⁰ In both of these strategies of analysis, the task is to analyze data produced by social, political, and economic historians for the purpose of exploring the meanings of the language of 1 Peter in its "context of reference" and its "context of culture."⁶¹ In other words, the goal still is to understand the language that stands in the text of 1 Peter.

The lens through which Elliott now views the text, however, uses filters and highlighters that focus on social values, meanings, boundaries, conflicts, etc. rather than filters and highlighters that focus on patterns of repetition, levels of narration, oppositional conceptual structures, language in antecedent and contemporary literature, or other phenomena. In these two chapters of A Home for the Homeless, therefore, Elliott is seeking to understand the social meanings of the language in 1 Peter in a manner consonant with the presuppositions of social semiotics. From the perspective of socio-rhetorical criticism, Elliott is introducing practices of analysis that contribute to the endeavor to see and hear the social and cultural meanings of the words in the document.

Finally, Elliott's book presents ideological analysis in chapters on "the socioreligious strategy of 1 Peter" and "group interests and ideology." Thus, the book approaches the text from four angles: inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture, and ideology. The book differs from Teacher in its emphasis on social texture and ideology rather than inner texture and intertexture. But the book addresses all four arenas of interpretation in a manner congenial to the basic strategy of socio-rhetorical criticism.

Ched Myers' Binding the Strong Man⁶² represents another interesting study alongside Teacher. Myers begins his book with reference to Ronald Reagan's 1984 political campaign, and this leads to a discussion of "symbolics and social practice," "ideological strategies of legitimation and subversion," "theology as ideological strategy," and "gospel as ideological narrative." In this book, then, ideology is the first arena of discussion, and analysis of the text of Mark flows from this discussion. From the standpoint of socio-rhetorical criticism, the fascinating thing is the amount