Psychological Hermeneutics For Biblical Themes And Texts

An assessment of the development and achievements of the field of Psychological Hermeneutics.

For centuries scholars have been developing ways of studying the bible, through exegesis, historical critique, literary critique, form criticism, and narrative analysis. During the last half century new theoretical approaches have come to the fore. Psychological Hermeneutics takes as its starting point the text itself, and its context - the dynamics of the human document created, the person(s) who authored the text, the original audience for which it was intended, the subsequent audiences to which it spoke, and the factors that were at play behind, in, and in front of the text. The contributions to this volume examine the growth of Psychological Hermeneutics as a discipline within biblical studies. The book is structured in two parts. The first assesses the approach taken by Wayne G. Rollins, one of the pioneers of this field. The second provides applications of Rollins' approach. The result is a book which presents a state-of-the-art survey of the discipline and development of Psychological Hermeneutics over the last thirty years.

This volume provides an introduction to psychological interpretations of the Hebrew Bible -- with the Garden of Eden story as a test case. It approaches the text from Freudian, Jungian, and Developmental psychologies, comparing and contrasting the different methods while taking on the hermeneutical issues. Ricoeur's work is used to establish criteria for adequate interpretation. Genesis 3 presents a fruitful text for psychological interpretation given its importance in Western culture. Its themes of sexuality, guilt, consciousness, and alienation are issues of great concern for everyone in our society. Kille's aim is to locate psychological criticism within the field of biblical studies and to propose a hermeneutical framework for describing and evaluating psychological approaches. The second part is devoted to analysis of different evaluations of Genesis 3 from the three chosen psychological perspectives.

Foreword by Walter Wink In recent years theologians and biblical scholars have begun to delve into the insights that come from the application of psychology to biblical texts. While these methods continue to be useful and popular, nowhere have the "foundational" texts in the field been collected. Wayne Rollins and Andrew Kille, who have both published and taught widely in the area of psychological biblical criticism, have assembled an excellent guide for those interested in this fascinating topic. Included in this anthology are articles from across the landscape, spanning over one hundred years and including such authors as Franz Delitzsch, M. Scott Fletcher, Max Weber, Walter Wink, and many other scholars.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Paul and death: A question of psychological coping -- 2 Coping with death in Paul's early letters -- 3 The Corinthian correspondence -- 4 Romans -- 5 The prison letters -- 6 Conclusions and prospects for further research -- Index

In Jesus and Psychology, Fraser Watts presents new scholarship in the emerging field of psychology and biblical studies. This collaborative analysis, with essays by leading psychologists and theologians, shows how psychology can be used to illuminate the historical and modern portrayals of Jesus, the wisdom of his sayings, and the reasons people read and understand the Bible differently. Among the issues discussed are the potential contributions of a psychological study of the historical Jesus; modern portrayals of Jesus in the cinema; contemporary methods of psychological therapy; threads of psychological meaning in Jesus' teaching; the importance of the breaking of taboos as shown in the Gospels; and using cognitive and developmental psychology to illustrate how thought processes and personality type affect our readings of sacred texts. Jesus and Psychology concludes with an examination of virtue orientations: the value people give to virtue has significant implications on what is perceived as the central message of the scriptures and on how we view justice, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. By presenting multiple perspectives on psychology and the Bible, Jesus and Psychology advances the study of science and religion and deepens the understanding of the Gospels. Book jacket.

Out of the life and thought of a noted psychologist, Carl Jung, comes a captivating approach to reading and interpreting the Bible. The book opens with the question, "Why is it that the images, characters, and stories of Scripture have the power to catalyze the imagination of the human psyche, not only among religious people, but also among artists, moviemakers, playwrights, and songwriters, some of whom are disenchanted with church, clergy, and established religion?" The answer to the question begins with Jung's statement that the Bible is an "utterance of the soul." Jung sees the Bible as a treasury of the soul (psyche), that is, the testimony of our spiritual ancestors proclaiming in history and law, prophecy and psalm, gospel and epistle, genealogy and apocalypse, their experience of the holy, and drawing us and others through us into that experience. The Bible is no stranger to Carl Jung. No document is cited by Jung more often, and no cast of characters from any tradition is summoned to the stage of Jung's discourse with greater regularity than are the Adams and Abrahams, the Melchizedeks and Moseses, the Peters and Pauls of Judaeo-Christian Scripture--185 biblical figures in all. Beyond that, the realities and experiences that concern Jung most are also those that occupy prime attention in the writings of biblical authors: a sense of soul, of personal destiny and call; an openness to the wisdom of dreams, revelations, and visions; the power of symbols and archetypal images; the riddle of evil within God's world; and above all, the sense of God--the numinous, the Holy, at the center of things.

Jonah’s radical and enigmatic nature calls for deeper exploration and engagement. Given its brevity, it is also an ideal text for multiple readings from a range of perspectives that complement, build upon, or challenge and critique each other. In Jonah’s Story, Our Challenge, each chapter brings a different hermeneutical tool to the text, to demonstrate the wealth of fresh readings and new vistas which can open up, and the rich resources for ministry which can come from these multiple readings.