Language, Cognition, and Biblical Exegesis : Interpreting Minds

What role do texts play in religious practice? What is the relationship between these texts and cognition? Are some texts more successful because they are better adapted to our cognitive structures? Why is biblical interpretation necessary, and what is the cognitive process behind it? This book considers such questions, and fills the gap in research on religious texts and narratives in the cognitive science of religion. The study of ancient religions and biblical studies are dominated by textual evidence. However, the cognitive science of religion is lacking significant research on the language and textual interpretation of this literature. This book presents a systematic attempt to redefine the interpretation of religious texts in a cognitive framework, providing concrete textual analysis on a broad selection of biblical passages. It explores the ways that cognitive approaches to language and textual interpretation expand the disciplines of the cognitive science of religion and biblical studies. This book brings together methodology from the cognitive sciences, linguistics, philology, biblical studies, and religious studies, to offer a new perspective for biblical studies and cognitive sciences. It presents a renewed vision of textual interpretation - one that aligns hermeneutical reflection with our cognitive capacities.

Ronit Nikolsky is Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Donald Wiebe is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

István Czachesz is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Tromsø, Norway. He is program unit chair of the Mind, Society, and Religion section of the Society of Biblical Literature and review editor of the Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Luther H. Martin is Professor of Religion Emeritus at the University of Vermont, USA.

Frederick S. Tappenden is Principal and Dean, and Professor of Theology at St. Stephen's College at the University of Alberta, Canada.