Fortress Press

Identity and Experience in the New Testament

Identity and Experience in the New TestamentIdentity and Experience in the New Testament

Identity and Experience in the New Testament

Klaus Berger (Author), Charles A. Muenchow (Translator)

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How do the New Testament documents present issues of passion, will, identity, and perception? How did the earliest followers of Jesus understand their experiences, behaviors, and suffering? These questions and more are addressed in this stimulating work by one of the most productive Continental New Testament scholars. Rather than approaching the New Testament with a Freudian, Jungian, or other modern psychological theory, Berger illuminates historically how peoples of the first century described their human experiences in relation to their encounters with God, Christ, demons, and the power of their own desires and will.
  • Publisher Fortress Press
  • Format Paperback
  • ISBN 9780800627799
  • Pages 312
  • Dimensions 6 x 9
  • Publication Date February 11, 2003

Excerpts

"Biblical psychology investigates the way in which the reality of human existence is presented within the horizon of divine revelation. Such an issue can hardly be a matter of indifference to anyone who would understand the divine revelation in its most immediate context or, expressed in theological terms, who would reflect upon the Incarnation in all its dimensions. To be sure, in this study psychology is going to be understood in a strictly historical sense, which means it will differ considerably from modern or contemporary modes of psychological understanding."
— from the Introduction

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Historical Psychology
Significance of the Inquiry
Status of the Scholarly Discussion
Posing Historical-Psychological Questions
Excursus: The Resurrection of Lazarus and Tokens of Reality
Methods of Historical Psychology
Exegesis and the Unconscious Mind
Summary and Preview

2. Identity and Person
Significance of the Issue
Initial Questions
The Essence of a Person Can Return
"Christ Lives in Me"

3. Demonic Possession
The Problem
Observations on the Religio-Historical Context
Demonic Possession in Historical Perspective
Some Hermeneutical Considerations

4. Experience of the Body
The Problem
Corporal Experience as Relational
The Body as Transferable Property
Sinning against One's Own Body
The Corporeality of Both Salvation and Damnation
Consequences

5. Interior and Exterior
The Psychological Question
Interior and Exterior: Basic Determinations
Devaluing the Exterior Dimension
The Path from Interior to Exterior
The "Inner Person" according to Paul

6. Perceptions
Perceptions of Reality (Facticity)
Visions
Mythic Events
Journeys to Heaven
Conscience
Death
Alienation

7. Emotions
Paul on Feelings
Desire
Fear and Anxiety
Terror
Worry
Disappointed Love
Groaning and Longing
Joy and Sorrow

8. Suffering
Setting the Historical-Psychological Question
Seriousness and Avoidance
Interpretation of Suffering
Different Sorts of Experience at the Same Time
Experiencing Being Valued
Splendor and Glory
Suffering and Dualism
Suffering as Origin of the Admonition
Solidarity and Imitation
Suffering and the Experience of Time
Suffering as Grace
Historical-Psychological Interpretation

9. Religion
Faith
Holy Spirit and Charisma
Sin
Prayer
Pastoral Care

10. Behavior
Mandated Hatred
Necessitated Self-Love
Sexuality
Risking and Gaining Life
Ownership
Vengeance

Index
2