Collective trauma and post-traumatic symptoms in the biblical narrative of ancient Israel

According to the biblical books of Exodus and Numbers, the early Israelites suffered recurrent plagues and other events which comprise significant collective trauma coinciding with their physical and spiritual birth as a people. These ancient narratives reflect a fledgling people's coping with high levels of transitional stress, multiple crises, and significant losses attendant upon slavery and genocide. Inspection of the text also reveals signs of collective post-traumatic reactions among the Israelites. Relevant psychological perspectives on stress, loss, and trauma can therefore usefully illuminate specific biblical events. Trauma may well be implicated in the etiology of certain stringent biblical commandments, including “the ban” and related severe restrictions against Israelite intermarriage. The Bible may also contain insights bearing upon social action aimed at preventing or coping with epidemics and for overcoming psychological trauma, of relevance to a modern positive community psychology.     

God at Play: Seeing God Through the Lens of the Young Krishna

Abstract : This article begins with the absence of biblical stories about Jesus' youth. This lack means that typical boyhood characteristics, such as playfulness, are absent from a traditional Christian picture of the divine. Using the lens of stories told about Krishna's youth in the Bhagavata Purana, I suggest that Christians could learn from the Hindu idea of a “god at play,” as such a concept enhances a Christian understanding of who God has revealed Godself to be, and how Christians are called to be in relationship to God.     

“Equal Discipleship”

Feminist theology is known for its various critical principles and methods of biblical interpretation. In the process of doing feminist biblical interpretation, feminist theologians have started to build their theological frameworks. This article takes the feminist biblical scholar Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and her construction of the New Testament as an example. In her book Discipleship of Equals, Schüssler Fiorenza put forward the important viewpoint of “equal discipleship.” This viewpoint provides a dialogue between Schüssler Fiorenza and the theological concerns of women in China. Like Schüssler Fiorenza, Chinese theologians have also noted the testimonies of Chinese women Christians in the development of the church. These can help female Christians realize who they are and the significance of being a member of the church. Christian Chinese traditional culture still influences the understanding of women's identity. This will be a significant challenge and task in practising Chinese feminist theology.     

The Emergence of Monotheism in Ancient Israel: A Survey of Recent Scholarship

Contemporary biblical scholars envision the emergence of monotheism in ancient Israel to be a later, more gradual phenomenon than heretofore has been assumed. This new view has emerged as a result of recent archaeological discoveries and a reassessment of the testimony of the biblical text. Only a small minority of pre-exilic Israelites were developing monotheistic ideas, and they probably went through several stages of evolution until they became consistent monotheists in the Babylonian Exile. Some critical scholars suspect that this evolution may have been a totally post-exilic phenomenon. This essay attempts to review the positions of various scholars in this debate.     

From Nehemia Americanus to Indianized Jews

This article explores the entangled history of transnational race discourses in the colonialism of early Puritan settlers in New England. Retracing the complexity of discursive intersections between proto-racist, anti-Judaic and pro-Judaic rhetoric within Puritan minority narratives, it asks how these discourses changed when theological concepts around Self and Other, Old and New Israel, were translated from Europe to the North American colonies. The settlers’ millenarian theology forged an eschatological link between the American wilderness and the religious and political heterotopia of a New Jerusalem; Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), for example, idealized the figure of the colonial founding father as an American Nehemiah or Moses. In the settlers’ vision, the Puritans stood in competition with Old Israel, aiming to assume its role and basing their apocalyptic interpretations of the flight from Europe on its exodus. At the same time, they transferred images of Europe's “internal colonized”—the Jews—to the indigenous population. In the frontier zone of colonial contact, the Puritans combined older anti-Judaic with their own millenarian pro-Judaic ideas in new ways, a process that converged in the notion that the “Indians” were descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel and their religion was similar to that of the biblical Israelites.     

Book reviews

Studies in Religious Fundamentalism. Ed. L. Caplan The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1987 ISBN 9 78033 419748 £29.50(h/b).

Trying Trialogues: Pluralism and Prejudicial Pluralism. David Kerr and Dan Cohn‐Sherbok (editors). Christians, Muslims and Jews, Conference of Christians, Muslims and Jews, Birmingham, 1984, no price given. pp.IV, 384     

Alius or Alter: The Qur'anic definition of Christians and Christianity

An essential part of Islam's self definition was not only linking itself to prior revelations and the communities that issued from them, but also distinguishing itself from them. The Qur'an does not spend a great deal of time on those earlier revelations as such — though later Muslims did — but did attempt on a number of occasions to characterize Muslims, Jews and Christians in ways that would serve to underline the differences. This paper is concerned only with the Qur'an's view of Christians, the forces driving it and its evolution over the time span represented by the Prophetic revelations.     

Biblical Inerrancy and Depressive Symptoms

A number of investigators have studied biblical inerrancy (i.e., the belief that the Bible is inspired by God, free from error, and should be interpreted literally). However, there has been little research on the relationship between biblical inerrancy and mental health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature. This is accomplished by estimating a latent variable model that was designed to empirically evaluate the following relationships: (1) Blacks, people with less education, and conservative Christians are more likely to have a strong belief in biblical inerrancy; (2) people with a strong belief in biblical inerrancy are more likely to experience demonic spiritual struggles when they are faced with stressful events; (3) individuals who experience demonic spiritual struggles are more likely to feel that the sacred aspects of their lives have been threatened; and (4) greater sacred loss is associated with more depressive symptoms. Data from a recent nationwide survey (N?=?2332) provide support for each of these relationships.     

Four chapters in the history of crypto-Judaism in Brazil: the case of the northeastern New Christians (17th–21st centuries)

The present work examines the history of a group of New Christians who were imprisoned by the Portuguese Inquisition between 1730 and 1740 in the northeastern Brazilian Captaincy of Paraíba. Our purpose is to assess the importance of Jewish interventions to the maintenance or resurgence of Jewish practices and Jewish identity among Portuguese conversos. Our point of departure is a discussion of three specific periods in the history of the New Christians of the Brazilian northeast: First, a period during which an openly-professing and Jewish community existed legally in Pernambuco under Dutch rule (1630–1654); second, the post-Dutch period, when a crypto-Jew who was not related to the group and harbored a stronger faith than its members, revived crypto-Jewish practices and instilled a crypto-Jewish identity among them. Third, we examine a much more recent period, beginning in the 1970s, in which historiography itself has played a central role in causing the local resurgence of crypto-Judaic practice and identity. We attempt to demonstrate that, contrary to the claims of traditional historiography on conversos, the Judaic practices and beliefs of the descendants of the Iberian Jews who converted to Christianity during the fifteenth century did not survive or reappear as a consequence of an uninterrupted cultural transmission of Jewish precepts; rather, these beliefs and practices survived because of external influences that the New Christians experienced in the course of their history.     

Cross‐Species Chimeras: Exploring a Possible Christian Perspective

Various entities that combine material from humans and other animals at either the cellular or subcellular level have attracted growing public interest. I explore the controversy by considering both the scientific rationale behind creating various entities that have prompted the greatest public concern and possible ethical implications. I note a number of potentially relevant biblical passages and reflect on the imago Dei and considerations of telos in order to prompt wider discussion regarding how Christians might respond to such emerging bioethical issues.     

Word of God or Witness? Issues in Christian Biblical Hermeneutics

This article gives a historical overview of the main issues and problems facing Christian interpreters of the Bible. The Christian understanding of the Bible is influenced by two main factors. On the one hand, Christians believe that God revealed himself and was present in the life, ministry, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In other words, Jesus is the one Word of God. On the other hand, Christians believe that the Bible is inspired Holy Scripture, containing the revelation of God. There is a tension between these two approaches, as one locates the divine revelation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the other in the Holy Book. The article argues that this tension has been a major creative driving force in the history of Christian biblical interpretation. It traces the main strategies with which Christian interpreters have approached the Bible in order to reconcile these two elements, or in which they have allowed one to overrule the other. This will provide an introduction to the key approaches and methods in Christian biblical interpretation.     

Ahl al‐dhimma in an Islamic state: The teaching of Abū al‐Hasan al‐Mawardi's Al‐ahkam al‐sultaniyya

The much‐quoted Al‐ahkam al‐sultaniyya of the prominent Shafi'i jurisconsult, Abu l‐Hasan al‐Mawardi (364–450 AH/974–1058 AD), was written primarily to buttress the ‘Abbadsid caliphate which was facing, at the time, challenges to its authority by the competing caliphates of the Fatimids and Umayyads, in Cairo and al‐Andalus respectively, and, at home by the actual usurpation of its power by the Twelver Shi'ite Buwayhids (945–1055 CE).

Al‐Mawardi recapitulates Sunni political thought to lend credence to the primacy of the ^cAbbasid caliphate in Baghdad and its legitimacy. His discussion of the various functions, rights and duties of the caliph included discussion of the rights and obligations of ahl al‐dhimma (Christians and Jews) in the Muslim state which included freedom of worship and protection by the state, in lieu of the obligation of male adults to pay a poll tax (jizya) and land tax (kharäj) by farmers. Al‐Mawardi affirms the obtaining practice that allowed Christians and Jews to attain high ranks in the government, serving as executive ministers, and participating in certain military campaigns.     

Cum Nimis Absurdum and the Ancona Auto-da-Fé revisited: their impact on Venice and some wider reflections

Two major events are generally cited as indicative of the new hostile Counter-Reformation attitude of the Papacy toward the Jews and consequently as causing a deterioration of the situation of the Jews throughout the Italian peninsula. The first is the papal bull Cum Nimis Absurdum issued in 1555 by Paul IV, the zealous former Cardinal Caraffa, only months after he assumed the papal throne, while the second is the burning at the stake in 1556 of the former New Christians who had reverted to Judaism in Ancona. While not minimizing the importance of Cum Nimis Absurdum and the action against the former New Christians in Ancona, it may nevertheless be instructive to step back and reconsider their impact on the Jews of the Italian peninsula and clarify whether they really represented a major peninsula-wide turning point.     

I am like a lion to Ephraim

This article argues that animal imagery – in combination with personal images of the deity – must be taken more seriously in studies of Old Testament theology. Bernhard Lang and Tryggve Mettinger are introduced as examples of scholars who distance themselves from the idea that the Israelites conceived of Yahweh in the figure of an animal. They have thereby contributed to the majority view among scholars that only the personal metaphors for Yahweh are worth taking seriously. As a counterweight to this, other scholars are quoted who have shown how the combination of human and animal, familiar from Egyptian religion, also appears in the Old Testament. This leads to the conclusion that through a dialogue between animal and personal images, it was possible for the biblical writers to formulate theologies in which God is not reduced to human imagery alone, as we can see among other things from the continued use in the New Testament of the lion image as well as the lamb image in Revelations.     

The Challenge of Religious Pluralism: The Association Between Interfaith Contact and Religious Pluralism

This research contributes to increasing understanding of the ways in which Christians think about religious pluralism in the United States. It does so by empirically uncovering the relationship between inter-faith contact and the willingness of white Christians to support tenets of religious pluralism. To that end, this study largely intimates that religious identity reinforces a dualistic world view. For white Christians, it is likely that contact with Jews and not Muslims is salient to their religious pluralist understandings. Nonetheless, more so than other Christians, Evangelicals tend to embrace a theology that views their belief system as being in conflict and competition with non-Christians. To that end, it is plausible that even when Christians have positive contact experiences with Jews and Muslims, Evangelicals are less willing than are other Christians to recognize them as members of the American religious polity.     

Jews in the diaspora with <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sepharad</Emphasis> in the mirror: ruptures,relations, and forms of identity: a theme examined through three cases

Recent historiography has led to a reevaluation of the diachronic paradigm that undergirds the classic story of Iberian Jews and conversos. In line with that reevaluation, this article investigates what motivated diasporic Sephardim, especially ones with cultural and other ties to Portugal, to conserve elements of an identity that pointed to their Iberian past, such as the Portuguese and Castilian languages, as well as what one might call “Ibero-conscious” forms of self-identification. What benefits, beyond expressing a nostalgic and otherwise emotive sensibility, could accrue from the retention of these forms? How did they and similar forms facilitate the building internal, group cohesion on the basis of shared connections to a common past? How did the forms articulate the relations of New Christians to the Iberian countries and to the Iberian Empires? To reflect on these and related questions, which focus on the continuity of ties between diasporic Jews and the Iberian Peninsula, we analyze here various temporally and geographically distinct cases: The case of the converso financier and politican Joseph Nasi (formerly João Micas); the case of the Sephardi convert and anti-Jewish polemicist, João Baptista D’Este (formerly Abraham Bendanan Serfatim); and the case of Portuguese Jews in Salé, Morocco, whose wide-ranging relations with the Portuguese Jews Community of Amsterdam and with Christian Dutchmen made for complex phenomena of identity-construction.     

Mexican Jewish? A conversation with Ilan Stavans

Mexican Jews are at a crossroads. Their history reaches back to after 1492, when a number arrived as conversos, crypto-Jews, and New Christians. The Holy Inquisition was founded in Mexico in 1535, with Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. Twenty-nine “deviants” were executed during this period. Ashkenazic and Sephardi Jews arrived at the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, followed by a wave of refugees of the Second World War. Today the Jewish community is made up of Orthodox Jews, exiled Israelis, and others. With democracy a messy affair, the government unable to ascertain its authority, and the drug cartel in an intense battle for power and territory, their position is delicate at best. Ilan Stavans is arguably the most prominent Mexican Jew inside and out. In books like On Borrowed Words (2001), Return to Centro Histórico (2010), and El Iluminado (2012), as well as in movies such as My Mexican Shiva (2007), directed by Alejandro Springall and based on his story “Morirse está en hebreo,” he has reflected on the dilemmas—cultural, political, and religious—facing this minority of close to 40,000 in a national population of 115 million. This conversation took place in April 2014.     

Towards a biblical psychoanalysis: a second look at the first book

Freud's materialistic treatment of religion has discouraged and stigmatised inquiries concerning the potential theoretical and clinical utility that biblical stories could offer to the ongoing development of psychoanalysis. As a result, the historical development of psychoanalysis has been disproportionally influenced by the Hellenic ideals that influenced the German humanistic pedagogical value of Bildung, to which Freud was an ardent disciple. However, since it has consistently been recognised that Western culture has been mutually influenced by both biblical and Hellenistic attitudes, it may be warranted to extend this dialectal interplay into the realm of individual psychology, in the process delimiting a space whereby psychoanalysis and biblical thought can constructively coexist. In this vein, prototypical myths from the Greek and biblical traditions can reliably be situated on a psycho-mythological continuum, with Greek myths representing a less integrated level of ego development and biblical narratives reflecting an unambivalent, higher level of psychological organisation. The Greek mythology of Oedipus and the biblical Binding of Isaac has been chosen to illustrate this dynamic.