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.
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.
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| Table of Contents | 1. Introduction 2. Reading the Bible as Fiction or Soteriological Myth: How the Human Brain Engages with Bible Narratives Lament Psalms 3. Biblical Lament Intersects with Psychotherapy as a Means of Healing the Effects of Trauma 4. Psalm 88: Divine Hiddenness, Theistic Dissonance, and the Enigmatic God 5. Psalm 88: A Psalm without Hope? Psychotraumatology 6. Deutero-Isaiah’s Daughter Zion as Survival Literature: Terror Management Theory 7. ‘What I Want to Do I Do Not Do, but What I Hate I Do’: The Hermeneutics of Trauma in Romans 7 Coping 8. ‘Yes, I Know their Pain’ (Exodus 3.7): The Empathetic God of Exodus and Coping with Crises 9. Assessing the Usefulness of the Psychological Perspective on Coping for the Exploration of Divine Trials as Religious Struggles in Sirach 2 10. Paul’s Coping with Replacement and the Chronological Sequence of his Letters 11. Coping with Lost Manhood: Early Christian Strategies for Restoring Masculinity Anger 12. The Raging Prophet: Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a Pathway Forward Through Pain 13. Anger and its Implications in Galatians 14. Narcissistic Father and Hated Brother: Decoding the Psychology of Biblical Chosenness Rhetoric 15. Persuasion in Preaching: A Social-Psychological Analysis of the Sermon to the Hebrews ‘Material Psyche’ 16. How ‘Place’ Matters: Materiality, Place Attachment and Naboth’s Vineyard (1 Kings 21) 17. Jesus, Totem and Taboo 18. The Body-Psychology Embedded in the Book of Job: A Hermeneutical Question 19. Conclusion |
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