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Chapter 10 - Bridging the Gap

From Textual Representations to the Experiential Level and Back

from Part V - Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

By
Anders Klostergaard Petersen
Edited by
Esther Eidinow ,
Armin W. Geertz  and
John North
Esther Eidinow
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Armin W. Geertz
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
John North
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

In the chapter, I explore what may be gained by reading textual instantiations of feelings in light of current knowledge of their underlying emotional counterparts. The overall idea is to bridge the gap between ‘biology’ and ‘culture’ to examine how knowledge about basic biology may contribute to deepen the textual understanding. I seek to illustrate the theoretical discussion by providing a biological emotional reading of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians chapter 6. I analyze Paul’s emphasis on baptism as moral cleansing in light of recent research in moral psychology and evolutionary biology on the Lady Macbeth complex. The argument is that there is an intrinsic relationship between the use of water and cognitive notions of cleanness, purity, dirt, moral filth, and impurity. These insights may be used to cast further light on Paul’s argument, thus illustrating the overall point that historians of religion, ancient historians, and classicists will benefit considerably by including knowledge from life sciences in the historical analyses.

Keywords

feelingsemotionsLady Macbeth complexPaulmoral cleansing
Type
Chapter
Information
Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience , pp. 245 - 265
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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