Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook
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Peter Lampe
Abstract
After sketching the difference between secular and religious texts regarding emotions and briefly scanning the role of psychology in the history of exegesis, the essay discusses five avenues to research on emotions that are coded in and evoked by religious texts (focus on the text as well as the recipient). Methodological issues are raised and impulses for research questions given. Avenues: (1) Definition issues regarding emotions are reflected. (2) Text-internal emotions: Within historical psychology, emotions can be studied from different angles (detecting emotions coded in historical texts; identifying conceptualizations and valuations of emotions across history and cultures; universality versus cultural dependency of emotion concepts and valuations; ethics of dealing with emotions from antiquity onward; historical psychology versus cross-cultural analysis of emotions). (3) Constructivist exegesis: Emotions are one of the sources of evidence that render religious propositions plausible and “true.” (4) Emotions external to the text: Specific text factors steer the emotions of text recipients. The so-called “cognitive approach” (cognitive science of religion; cognitive narratology) is presented and empirical research advocated. (5) Emotions influence decision-making and behavior, which has implications for ethics. Differing research tendencies challenge scholars to integrate them or to choose by exclusion (interest in historical psychology as supplement to the historical-critical methods versus purely hermeneutical interest; theoretical emotion models generated by either empirical sciences or liberal arts; inductive versus deductive method).
Abstract
After sketching the difference between secular and religious texts regarding emotions and briefly scanning the role of psychology in the history of exegesis, the essay discusses five avenues to research on emotions that are coded in and evoked by religious texts (focus on the text as well as the recipient). Methodological issues are raised and impulses for research questions given. Avenues: (1) Definition issues regarding emotions are reflected. (2) Text-internal emotions: Within historical psychology, emotions can be studied from different angles (detecting emotions coded in historical texts; identifying conceptualizations and valuations of emotions across history and cultures; universality versus cultural dependency of emotion concepts and valuations; ethics of dealing with emotions from antiquity onward; historical psychology versus cross-cultural analysis of emotions). (3) Constructivist exegesis: Emotions are one of the sources of evidence that render religious propositions plausible and “true.” (4) Emotions external to the text: Specific text factors steer the emotions of text recipients. The so-called “cognitive approach” (cognitive science of religion; cognitive narratology) is presented and empirical research advocated. (5) Emotions influence decision-making and behavior, which has implications for ethics. Differing research tendencies challenge scholars to integrate them or to choose by exclusion (interest in historical psychology as supplement to the historical-critical methods versus purely hermeneutical interest; theoretical emotion models generated by either empirical sciences or liberal arts; inductive versus deductive method).
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword to the Series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
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1 Contemporary Methodological Perspectives on Emotions
- Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook 9
- Grasping Religiously Connoted Emotions and Sentiments from a Co-Constructivist Emotion Paradigm 29
- Antisemitism as Cultural Sadism: An Erotohistorical Approach 51
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2 Grasping Emotions in Ancient Iconography
- Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods 79
- Emotions and Visual Arts, with a Focus on Greco-Roman Artefacts: A Response to K. Sonik 99
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3 Grasping Emotions in Religious Authorative Texts of Antiquity
- Emotion Scripts in the Hebrew Bible: A Case of Hate 127
- Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues 143
- Prophetic Shockvertising: Methods and Ethics of Shock Effects in Amos 3, Isaiah 20, and Ezekiel 23 177
- „Und sie fürchteten sich sehr …“: Kognitionswissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Angst und deren Anwendung auf neutestamentliche Texte 207
- Qur’anic Plot and the Practice of Emotional Virtue, with the Example of Al-Aʿrāf (Q. 7) 229
- Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an 253
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4 Grasping Emotions from Philosophical and Systematic-Theological Perspectives
- Kontrollieren oder Kultivieren der Emotionen? Aristoteles’ Konzeption der Emotionen 273
- Sprache und Gefühl: Überlegungen zur theologischen Hermeneutik 289
- Mimesis, Gefühl und Ratio: Anthropologische Mehrdimensionalität und religiöse Tradition: Eine Response zu R. Barth 303
- List of Authors 313
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword to the Series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
-
1 Contemporary Methodological Perspectives on Emotions
- Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook 9
- Grasping Religiously Connoted Emotions and Sentiments from a Co-Constructivist Emotion Paradigm 29
- Antisemitism as Cultural Sadism: An Erotohistorical Approach 51
-
2 Grasping Emotions in Ancient Iconography
- Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods 79
- Emotions and Visual Arts, with a Focus on Greco-Roman Artefacts: A Response to K. Sonik 99
-
3 Grasping Emotions in Religious Authorative Texts of Antiquity
- Emotion Scripts in the Hebrew Bible: A Case of Hate 127
- Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues 143
- Prophetic Shockvertising: Methods and Ethics of Shock Effects in Amos 3, Isaiah 20, and Ezekiel 23 177
- „Und sie fürchteten sich sehr …“: Kognitionswissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Angst und deren Anwendung auf neutestamentliche Texte 207
- Qur’anic Plot and the Practice of Emotional Virtue, with the Example of Al-Aʿrāf (Q. 7) 229
- Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an 253
-
4 Grasping Emotions from Philosophical and Systematic-Theological Perspectives
- Kontrollieren oder Kultivieren der Emotionen? Aristoteles’ Konzeption der Emotionen 273
- Sprache und Gefühl: Überlegungen zur theologischen Hermeneutik 289
- Mimesis, Gefühl und Ratio: Anthropologische Mehrdimensionalität und religiöse Tradition: Eine Response zu R. Barth 303
- List of Authors 313
