Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues
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Melanie Peetz
Abstract
Although biblical texts convey emotions, the literature on the methodology for the study of emotion in biblical texts is scarce. This article examines the hermeneutical and methodological presuppositions for the study of emotion in biblical poetic texts. The aim is to investigate how biblical poetic texts portray and express emotions and how they evoke emotions in their recipients. Drawing on modern psychological, literary, and cultural theories of emotion, I propose a methodological roadmap suitable to explore emotions in biblical poetic texts by combining literary methods, such as semantics and rhetorical analyses, with approaches from the history of religion. Psalm 130 serves as a model for this approach with the following results: (1) The emotional terms in Psalm 130 are rooted in cultural and temporal contexts. (2) The expression of emotions depends on an interplay of several textual features and its literary context. (3) Psalm 130 utilizes a range of rhetorical devices to evoke emotions. However, the triggering of emotions depends strongly on the extent to which recipients are familiar with literary conventions to convey emotion, as well as on their individual previous experience and their willingness to engage in an emotionalization process.
Abstract
Although biblical texts convey emotions, the literature on the methodology for the study of emotion in biblical texts is scarce. This article examines the hermeneutical and methodological presuppositions for the study of emotion in biblical poetic texts. The aim is to investigate how biblical poetic texts portray and express emotions and how they evoke emotions in their recipients. Drawing on modern psychological, literary, and cultural theories of emotion, I propose a methodological roadmap suitable to explore emotions in biblical poetic texts by combining literary methods, such as semantics and rhetorical analyses, with approaches from the history of religion. Psalm 130 serves as a model for this approach with the following results: (1) The emotional terms in Psalm 130 are rooted in cultural and temporal contexts. (2) The expression of emotions depends on an interplay of several textual features and its literary context. (3) Psalm 130 utilizes a range of rhetorical devices to evoke emotions. However, the triggering of emotions depends strongly on the extent to which recipients are familiar with literary conventions to convey emotion, as well as on their individual previous experience and their willingness to engage in an emotionalization process.
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
