Psychology and Biblical Studies
Society of Biblical Literature
November 2004 (San Antonio)
S20-14: Apocalypse and Cosmic Conflict
D Andrew Kille, Revdak, Presiding
- Michael Willett Newheart, Howard University "Fanning Fanon's Flame: Using the Afro-Caribbean
Psychiatrist Frantz Fanon in Interpreting the Apocalyptic Texts of
Terror"
In his classic work Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon wrote about French colonialism and the Algerian war of independence from his vantage point as head of the psychiatric unit of an Algerian hospital. He wrote about the “mystification” which some Algerians engaged in so as to accommodate oppression, and he also wrote about the mental illnesses that resulted from colonialism and decolonialization. Fanon’s work has been used in studies of the historical Jesus and the Gospel of Mark, but I am unaware of any application of his work to the “apocalyptic texts of terror” found in Paul and the Apocalypse. In this paper I will show the relevance of his work to this literature. I will demonstrate how these texts bear out Fanon’s contention that the oppressed longs to be the oppressor; in the Roman imperial context they show believers triumphing over nonbelievers. I will also discuss what psychological effects such texts might have upon contemporary readers, who live in the U.S. imperial context.
- Paul Fisher, North Carolina, "God on Steroids: Apocalyptic as the Medicine of Melancholy Metaphysicians"
In this essay I explore the psychological matrix of apocalyptic thought using William James's typology of religious experiences and Carl Jung's concept of personality types. My primary focus is on the psychological significance of the divine warrior myth in the canonical apocalyptic materials. Building on the work of Paul Hanson's sociological analysis of the origins of apocalyptic thought in the intense conflict between hierocrats and visionaries in the post-exilic period I suggest there is a unique psychological experience implicit in that conflict. The social situation alone cannot account for the origin or continued appeal of apocalyptic thought forms. The apocalyptic materials contain interesting parallels to what William James called "the sick soul" and what Carl Jung termed "introversion." The significance of the divine warrior myth for the apocalypticist is illuminated by James's description of the religious experience of self-despair in the face of what is perceived as complete and utter ontological evil. The apocalyptic retreat from history and politics into the timeless world of myth is also illuminated by Carl Jung's concept of introversion as a retreat from extenal realities into the archetypal depths of the self. Through these lenses apocalyptic is as much the cry of the psychologically oppressed soul as of the sociologically oppressed minority. The perceived depletion of self and social resources is the psychological soil in which apocalyptic concepts flourish and grow. The size of the divine warrior offers a key to the depth of the anguish of a soul beseiged by evil and desperately longing for salvation. For such souls it is only the strong medicine of the melancholy metaphysicians of apocalyptic that offers hope for a cure.
- Barbara M.Leung Lai, Tyndale Seminary " Immersing Ourselves in the Visionary Experience
of Daniel: Reading, Emotive-Experiencing, Appropriation"
Operating within the three interconnected worlds of the text, this paper is a demonstrated example of a pyschological dimension in reading the apocalyptic text of Daniel. Using the "I"-Window as the port of entry, I will focus on the "I"-voice of Daniel (places where he spoke of the emotive impact of the exotic visions upon him) in the non-narrative section of the book (chapter 7–12). I seek to correlate the emotions felt by this biblical persona (in his historical context) and the transitive process of emotive-experiencing by engaging readers. In merging these two horizons, there creates yet another "entry point" in understanding this apocalyptic text --- "to take Daniel on his own terms and immerse ourselves in the visionary experience as he describes it" (John Goldingay, Daniel, xl). Further, I intend to explicate the dynamics of appropriation. As contemporary readers bring their worlds in front of the text, each in their own way engages in the act of appropriation --- re-living and re-expressing the visions in light of the present-day world events.
- Paul N. Anderson, George Fox University " Antichristic Errors...and Errors of the Johannine Antichrists"
While references to the biblical “Antichrist” figures are rife with psychological torment and effect, many interpretations of these villainous figures involve serious exegetical errors. First, they lump “the Beast,” “the man of lawlessness,” “the Antichrists,” and the number 666 into an amalgamated villain-stew out of which are scooped an amazing array of portraits that function more as projections of fears than as real threats known to the original writers. Second, antichristoi occurs nowhere in Revelation but only in the first and second Epistles of John. While used to embellish perceived threats, these references are not futuristic, but contemporary; it is an error to equate them with psycho-speculation based on the Johannine Apocalypse. Third, it appears that two distinctive antichristic threats are alluded to in I John 2:18–25 and 4:1–3, and the failure to account for these differences contributes to interpretive errors regarding the particulars of the Johannine antichristic passages. I n contrast to psycho-projective distortions of the text, a more adequate reading renders them as texts of liberation rather than of projection. From an experiential-contextual perspective, the errors of these Johannine Antichrists appear to be twofold: involving a schism of Johannine Jewish Christians returning to the religious security of the Synagogue, and a later threat involving Docetizing Hellenistic Christian preachers extolling the convenience of following a non-suffering Jesus. A fuller understanding of these threats in the first-century Johannine situation provides clarity as to what these particular threats may have involved. An experiential-contextual understanding of these issues liberates later interpreters from errant speculation as to the flaws of others, and attunes one’s sensitivity to one’s own condition existentially. Thus, a psychological reading of these texts diminishes one’s need to address the enemies without and liberates one to recognize and address the enemies within.
Wayne Rollins, Hartford Seminary, Respondent
S20-65: Psychological Views of Biblical Law, Jesus
and
Divine Retribution
Jill McNish, Presiding
Psychology and the Decalogue
- Bernhard Lang, University of Paderborn, Germany " The Iniquity of the Fathers: A Psychological
Reading of the Decalogue"
Three generations are mentioned in the Decalogue: the fathers (whose "iniquity" is referred to), the sons (i.e., those to whom the Decalogue is addressed), and the sons' children (those who are to honor their parents). The relationship between the three generations forms the deep structure of the Decalogue. The paper suggests that the discontinuity between the sons and the fathers, and the continuity between the sons and their children should be looked at from a psychological perspective. It will be argued that (1) an exilic date of the Decalogue fits the generational pattern, and (2) a psychological analysis of intergenerational discontinuity helps us understand the sons' willingness to embrace Yahwistic monolatry or, more precisely, divine fatherhood.
- Lyn M. Bechtel, Drew Theological School " The Psychological Implications of the Fifth
Commandment"
If the purpose of the fifth commandment is to make the job of raising children easier for parents, it should be espoused. However, a degree of rebellion against parental control is essential to adolescent maturation. Consequently, the implications of the law against a rebellious son begs examination. The disobedient person is described as not heeding the parental voice and is "stubborn and rebellious" or a "glutton and drunkard". Although these phrases are often taken literally, within deuteronomic theology they seem to be used metaphorically. They refer to the father-son relationship of YHWH and Israel, with the law representing the voice of YHWH and the despictable behavior being apostasy. Some deuteronomists (probably not all Israel) are resisting the increasing control of legalistic deuteronomic theology by turning to another Yahwist theology. These metaphors are found in the New Testament, where Jesus, who is considered the son of YHWH by Christians, is labeled a "glutton and drunkard", i.e. a rebellious son, by Pharasaic deuteronomists. In the Hebrew Bible the penalty for being a rebellious son is death by stoning. Although Jesus eats and drinks with "sinner", over indudlgence is not the problem. He has violated the law, practiced situational ethics, and turned from deuteronomic theology. The most prominent characteristic of life is change, but since change is threatening, varying degrees of human control renders society more orderly and makes life feel more stable and secure. The law provides a degree of control and a sense of ethical certainty. However, human control can become excessive. Then, rebellion against disproportionate control can allow new, creative elements to arise. This paper will investigate the psychological advantages of theological rebellion and the pitfalls of the fifth commandment, along with the legislation against a rebellious son.
- Dereck Daschke, Truman State University "`Thou Shalt Not Covet':
Repression, Israel, and Its Discontents"
While Sigmund Freud’s antipathy toward the psychological difficulties associated with Christianity’s so-called Eleventh Commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (originally found in Lev 19:18) is fairly well known, little has been made, either in the ancient or modern world, about the challenges demanded by an even more foundational source: The Tenth Commandment, the prohibition against coveting a neighbor’s wife and/or property. What at first glance looks like another law against behavior that would be damaging to society and hence on par with the preceding commandments against false witness, adultery, stealing, and murder, actually raises several questions about this law’s intent, how its violation would be discovered by anyone but God, and, even how it was ever expected to be enforced. In fact, its placement at the conclusion of the Decalogue raises questions about its relationship to the other nine laws, a fact the later Rabbis addressed in Pesikta Rabbati 107a when they determined that to transgress the Tenth Commandment was to violate all of the rest. This equation of thought with sin, rather than deed, calls to mind Jesus’ similar stance in the Gospels, but even more so Freud’s “psycho-mythology” of the Primal Horde and the origins of the super-ego, repression, civilization, and religion in Civilization and Its Discontents. In light of this correspondence, it is possible to consider that the movement of the Decalogue from the supremacy of this one God, to the prohibition of images, to the exaltation of parents, to social restrictions, all reflects a clearly defined arc of renunciation that culminates in the command against coveting and, ultimately, the possibility of Israelite civilization itself – though not without its “discontents.”
Methods and Models
- Chaya Halberstam, King's College, University of
London "`
The Land Will Vomit You Out': Kristeva's Abject and Divine Retribution"
This paper considers Klaus Koch’s seminal essay, “Is There a Doctrine of Retribution in the Old Testament?” from a psychoanalytic perspective, specifically that of Julia Kristeva in her work Powers of Horror. Koch contends that in the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh does not execute retributive punishment as an impartial adjudicator of human action, but rather functions as a “midwife who assists at a birth by facilitating the completion of something which previous human action has already set in motion.” He also maintains that “this concept of a sphere of influence in which the built-in consequences of actions take effect seems strange to us because it is so totally at odds with what lies in the realm of our experience.” This paper argues that in fact, this idea is not at all foreign to us—it describes, rather, Kristeva’s notion of the abject: the common feeling of disgust, the desire to expel that which is defiled and which threatens the identity of the subject (or the sacred). The abject can be literal and material, as Kristeva demonstrates regarding the Levitical laws of ritual impurity, but it can also be interiorized: “defilement will blend with guilt [and] … a new category will be established—Sin.” Thus if sin can be viewed as a transgression of boundaries in which the self commingles with that which is loathsome, the “doctrine” of retribution can be understood as a natural, psychoanalytic reaction to such an encroachment of the abject: the impulse to annihilate, to expel. Yahweh can accordingly be seen as the author of punitive retribution—the one who expels, who destroys, who exiles—while this retributive act can simultaneously be understood as psychoanalytically inevitable, indeed automatic.
