Mixed Feelings and Vexed Passions: Exploring Emotions in Biblical Literature

Description

An international team of Hebrew Bible and New Testament scholars offers incisive case studies of passions displayed by divine and human figures in the biblical texts ranging from joy, happiness, and trust to grief, hate, and disgust. Essays address how biblical characters' feelings affect their relationship with God, one another, and the world and how these feelings mix together, for good or ill, for flourishing or vexation. Deeply engaged with both ancient and modern contexts, including the burgeoning interdisciplinary study of emotion in the humanities and sciences, these essays break down the artificial divide between reason and passion, cognition and emotion, thought and feeling in biblical study. Cover Contents Preface Abbreviations Getting a Feel for the “Mixed” and “Vexed” Study of Emotions in Biblical Literature The Central Role of Emotions A Prototype of Biblical Hate From Fear’s Narcissism to Participatory Imagination Disgust in Body, Mind, and Language Understanding Grief and Reading the Bible Mourning over Sin/Affliction and the Problem of “Emotion” Emotion, Repentance, and the Question of the “Inner Life” The Pride of Babylon in Isaiah 47 Revisited God and the “Happiness Formula” “Your Faith Has Made You Well” Not “Hardened Hearts” but “Petrified Hearts” Reflexivity and Emotion in Narratological Perspective Why the Johannine Jesus Weeps at the Tomb of Lazarus When Enough Is Never Enough The Missing Emotion Afterword Contributors Ancient Sources Index