Holy Resilience: The Bible's Traumatic Origins
David M. Carr
Abstract
This book suggests that human trauma gave birth to the Bible. The Bible's ability to speak to suffering is a major reason why the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity have retained their relevance for thousands of years. In a reinterpretation of the Bible's origins, the book tells the story of how the Jewish people and Christian community had to adapt to survive multiple catastrophes and how their holy scriptures both reflected and reinforced each religion's resilient nature. The book's analysis demonstrates how many of the central tenets of biblical religion, including monotheism and the ... More
This book suggests that human trauma gave birth to the Bible. The Bible's ability to speak to suffering is a major reason why the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity have retained their relevance for thousands of years. In a reinterpretation of the Bible's origins, the book tells the story of how the Jewish people and Christian community had to adapt to survive multiple catastrophes and how their holy scriptures both reflected and reinforced each religion's resilient nature. The book's analysis demonstrates how many of the central tenets of biblical religion, including monotheism and the idea of suffering as God's retribution, are factors that provided Judaism and Christianity with the strength and flexibility to endure in the face of disaster. In addition, the book explains how the Jewish Bible was deeply shaped by the Jewish exile in Babylon, an event that it rarely describes, and how the Christian Bible was likewise shaped by the unspeakable shame of having a crucified savior.
Keywords:
human trauma,
Bible,
suffering,
Judaism,
Christianity,
Christian community,
holy scriptures,
monotheism,
retribution
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300204568 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: May 2015 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300204568.001.0001 |
