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When Psychology Meets the Bible

£85.00

This much-needed biblical studies encounter with the physiological and social sciences demonstrates ways these disciplines relate closely. A group of 17 scholars from across the world and from various psychological persuasions have considered texts—from many parts of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The essays recognise the human emotional need of the embodied mind in both literary characters and readers, and respond to it with empathic understanding.

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SKU: 978-1-914490-27-9

This much-needed biblical studies encounter with the physiological and social sciences demonstrates ways these disciplines relate closely. A group of 17 scholars from across the world and from various psychological persuasions have considered texts—from many parts of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The essays recognise the human emotional need of the embodied mind in both literary characters and readers, and respond to it with empathic understanding.

The newness of interpretative approach in this collection anchors its understanding of the texts within recognised, scientific, psychological theories. Refreshing, even exciting, readings are discerned by focusing understanding of the human mind on those writing, and existing in, the biblical texts. This initiative is in significant contrast to a long history of implied psychological exegesis.

Where else, but in the Bible, can such a wide range of human actions, interactions, motivations and tragedies be studied in a variety of social situations? Showcasing the psychological implications of these texts serves as an invitation to continue this new momentum in research. At the same time, the freedom to explore the Bible psychologically has brought the most urgent and pressing psychological struggles to the surface, proving the relevance of all these biblical texts in our present world.

Additional information

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Pieter van der Zwan

2. Reading the Bible as Fiction or Soteriological Myth: How the Human Brain Engages with Bible Narratives
Heather A. McKay

Lament Psalms

3. Biblical Lament Intersects with Psychotherapy as a Means of Healing the Effects of Trauma
June F. Dickie

4. Psalm 88: Divine Hiddenness, Theistic Dissonance, and the Enigmatic God
David Cohen

5. Psalm 88: A Psalm without Hope?
Rebecca S. Watson

Psychotraumatology

6. Deutero-Isaiah’s Daughter Zion as Survival Literature: Terror Management Theory
Angela Sawyer

7. ‘What I Want to Do I Do Not Do, but What I Hate I Do’: The Hermeneutics of Trauma in Romans 7
Christopher A. Porter

Coping

8. ‘Yes, I Know their Pain’ (Exodus 3.7): The Empathetic God of Exodus and Coping with Crises
Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg

9. Assessing the Usefulness of the Psychological Perspective on Coping for the Exploration of Divine Trials as Religious Struggles in Sirach 2
Anna Nürnberger

10. Paul’s Coping with Replacement and the Chronological Sequence of his Letters
Linda Joelsson

11. Coping with Lost Manhood: Early Christian Strategies for Restoring Masculinity
Petri Merenlahti

Anger

12. The Raging Prophet: Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a Pathway Forward Through Pain
Jennifer M. Matheny and Amy E. Hale

13. Anger and its Implications in Galatians
Nina E. Livesey

14. Narcissistic Father and Hated Brother: Decoding the Psychology of Biblical Chosenness
Gili Kugler

Rhetoric

15. Persuasion in Preaching: A Social-Psychological Analysis of the Sermon to the Hebrews
Tim MacBride

‘Material Psyche’

16. How ‘Place’ Matters: Materiality, Place Attachment and Naboth’s Vineyard (1 Kings 21)
Hendrik Viviers

17. Jesus, Totem and Taboo
Kari Syreeni

18. The Body-Psychology Embedded in the Book of Job: A Hermeneutical Question
Pieter van der Zwan

19. Conclusion
Heather A. McKay

Reviews

  1. Louise Clines

    “I warmly recommend this book to anyone who is already part of the conversation between Bible and psychology or who wishes to
    listen in for the first time.” Samuel Hldebrandt SOTS Book List

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Book information

Editors
Heather A. McKay & Pieter van der Zwan
List Price
£85 / $105 / €95
Series
Bible in the Modern World, 83 / SCIBS, 6
Scholars' Price
£42.50 / $52.50 / €47.50
ISBN 13 hardback
978-1-914490-27-9
Format
Hardback
Page Extent
x + 410
Publication Date
June 2023
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