. . . a way of reading and interpreting biblical texts which is critically attentive to psychological factors involved in their origin, composition, transmission, interpretation, translation, and expression.
Call for Papers: Annual Meeting 2012
The Call for Papers for the SBL Annual Meeting in Chicago, November17-20 has now been published.
Psychology and Biblical Studies Section
We welcome proposals for papers that address Biblical texts, themes, figures and/or readers and interpreters using the concepts and interpretive tools of any named field of psychology.
We are particularly interested in papers which examine readers, the process of reading, appropriation of texts, and their impact on individuals and communities from a psychological perspective.
We also plan review sessions of two recent books: Kamila Blessing’s Families of the Bible (Praeger 2010), and Barbara Leung Lai’s Through the ‘I’-Window: The Inner Life of Characters in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffeild Phoenix Press, 2011).
Questions? Contact the Chair, D. Andrew Kille, at psybibs@psybibs.org.
To propose a paper for the session, see full details and online submission information on the SBL website.
Deadline for proposals is March 1, 2012.
Filed under Annual Meeting
Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus
Van Os, Bas, Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus (London: T&T Clark International, 2011).
This book is a prodigious achievement, breaking ground simultaneously in three fields: historical Jesus research, psychological biblical criticism, and early church studies. With an impressive command of European and American scholarship, Bas van Os initiates us into the world between the historical Jesus and earliest Christianity with an intriguing thesis: that the effect of the former on the latter provides compelling psychological, anthropological, demographic, and sociological insight into the historical Jesus.
The reader will not be able to put the book down as van Os initiates us into six disciplines new to most biblical scholars: attachment theory, rational choice theory, anthropological psychology, the psychology of coping with loss, and role theory, all of which open unexpected doors to a past that is constantly at work in the conscious and unconscious life of church and scholar. – Wayne G. Rollins
Filed under Book Review
Annual Meeting in San Francisco
Many thanks to all those who participated in the Psychology and Biblical Studies sessions this year! There were several excellent sessions, including those on Healthy (?) Biblical Studies and the review of Bas van Os’ book Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus.
Find a full listing of the sessions and presenters at the San Francisco meeting.
Filed under Annual Meeting
Psybibs Sessions in San Francisco, November 2011
There will be four Psychology and Biblical Studies Section sessions at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Francisco, CA November 19-22, 2011. Sessions will include:
- Healthy(?) Biblical Studies
- Book Review: Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus
A review of Bas Van Os, Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus:
Explorations in Understanding (T&T Clark, 2011). - Explorations in Hebrew Scriptures
- Divinity, Readers, and Reading: Psychology and Interpretation
Filed under Annual Meeting
