Identity and Experience in the New Testament

by Klaus Berger, Charles A. Muenchow

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800627799
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	02/11/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Klaus Berger is Professor of New Testament Theology at the University of Heidelberg. He is the author of a dozen scholarly works, including Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament (1995), and The Truth under Lock and Key? Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1995).

Charles Muenchow has translated numerous works in biblical and theological studies.

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