Psychological Biblical Criticism is . . .

. . . 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.

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.

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

Families of the Bible: A New Perspective

Blessing, Kamila, Families of the Bible: A New Perspective (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2010).

Reinterpreting the Bible through Family Systems Theory, this fascinating exploration shows how the theology of creation, restoration, and salvation can be meaningfully and uniquely understood through the lens of the biblical family.

The most often mentioned and most profoundly alone being in the Bible is God. The second is Jesus. In fact, the single person turns out to be of central importance in the Bible, despite the overwhelming emphasis on extended biological families. Since the only consistent definition of “family” in the Bible is “covenant,” the orphan, the single person, the gay person, and others who are often on the fringes of the Church are just as much part of the family of God as the husband-wife-child unit.

Psychological Hermeneutics of the Bible

J. Harold Ellens is one of the founding members of the Psychology and Biblical Studies Section, has served many years on the Steering Committee, and has contibuted significantly to publication of work in the field. He notes, “Lately I have been working on epitomizing my approach to the psychological hermeneutics of biblical themes and texts.” The results are below.

Psychological Hermeneutics of The Bible
J. Harold Ellens

My approach to the Psychological Hermeneutics of biblical themes and texts has always been from the operationally applied side to the conceptual models.  I have been reflecting lately on how I can epitomize both the content and method of my work in psychological hermeneutics of scripture. I think I have been able to conceptualize it articulately.

I operate, like Isaac Newton, with three basic laws that I think must reign in the field of biblical interpretation if one is to get at the essential biblical truth. They are as follows:

A Cry Instead of Justice: The Bible and Cultures of Violence in Psychological Perspective

Daschke, Dereck and D. Andrew Kille, Eds.
A Cry Instead of Justice:
The Bible and Cultures of Violence in Psychological Perspective.
Library of Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament Studies.
(New York/London: T & T Clark, 2010).

Within a book widely touted as the path to peace, violence has incongruously been central to the Bible and how it is used. This collection book examines the manifestations of violence in Scripture, and the ways that Scripture itself – whether violent in content or not – can be used to justify violence and aggression in specific social circumstances today. The book is divided into two parts. The first half explores some incidents of Biblical violence that, rather than appearing at the forefront of the narrative, reflect that ancient Jewish culture (including the early Christian movement recorded in the New Testament) treats violence as an undeniable fact of the social world in which biblical figures live.

Psybibs Sessions in Atlanta, November 2010

There will be four Psychology and Biblical Studies Section sessions at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Atlanta, GA this coming November 20-23. Sessions will include:

• The Making of Fornication: A Book Review Panel on The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity by Kathy Gaca
• New models for Psychological Criticism: Exploration of new methods and theories for psychological biblical criticism.
• Cognitive Approaches to the Bible: Applications of Cognitive Theory.
• The Bible in Healing and Transformation

Find details on the sessions.