Abstract
In recent years, there has been an explosion of research on the emotions across the scholarly disciplines. Old dualisms rooted in antiquity which saw the emotions (or, in the pre-modern period, the ‘passions’) as a threat to reason have given way to an appreciation of emotions as a form of cognition, communication and social bonding. This research has attracted the attention of biblical scholars seeking to understand better the emotion language of scriptural texts and their affective afterlife.
This collection of essays, arising out of a Society of Biblical Literature ‘Bible and Emotion’ group that began in 2012, represents a significant contribution to this burgeoning area of study. The essays are thoroughly interdisciplinary in nature, but particular stimulation has come from the work of philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum on attitudes to the emotions among the ancient philosophical schools and their potential for contemporary application. There are 16 essays covering a wide range of texts and topics across both Testaments, along with an afterword by classicist David Konstan, and Scott Spencer offers a very valuable opening survey of the current state of play in emotions research and its appropriation in biblical studies. Crucial questions addressed here include issues of terminology and translation, not least whether ancient and modern emotion terms and taxonomies are compatible, and whether emotions are universal or culture-specific.
Among the contributions from Hebrew Bible scholars, Matthew Schlimm offers a wide-ranging account of the role of emotions (such as anger, fear and love) in biblical theology and ethics, and also of how the Bible is received in popular culture. Deena Grant draws on the field of cognitive linguistics to compare and contrast modern and ancient notions of hatred, which are then applied to the hatred towards Joseph by his brothers in Genesis 37. A standout essay by Thomas Kazen examines the ‘multileveled function of disgust in biblical purity discourse as an embodied emotion, a conceptual framework, and a rhetorical strategy’ (p. 97). His work advances considerably the attention to disgust opened up earlier by Nussbaum in her monograph of 2004, Hiding from Humanity: disgust, shame, and the law (Princeton University Press). Among the other Hebrew Bible contributions, David Bosworth draws effectively on attachment theory to elucidate the importance of the social dimension of the emotion of grief, a case study of which he finds in the Book of Lamentations.
Among the contributions from New Testament scholars, Scott Spencer nicely explores the affective dynamics involved in trust in Jesus exemplified in two healing stories in the Gospel of Mark. Drawing on literary and rhetorical studies, Michal Beth Dinkler explores the emotion of joy in the Gospel of Luke. She shows well how representations of joy in Luke work to facilitate joy in Luke’s implied audience. Among the other essays, Stephen D. Moore draws on affect theory to offer a dense account of the weeping of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus; and David E. Fredrickson compares 1 Peter and Paul on insatiable desire in ancient philosophical context. Finally, in an imaginative piece, Katherine Hockey makes a good case for why, given the likely Sitz im Leben of 1 Peter as one of hostility and persecution, and in spite of the attention to a wide range of emotions in the epistle, anger is absent.
Overall, this collection of essays is a valuable entry point to a new field in biblical studies. In addition, the annotation and select bibliographies for each essay offer a rich resource for further reading.