Power and emotion in ancient Judaism : community and identity in formation / Ari Mermelstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mermelstein, Ari, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apocryphal books (Old Testament)--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Apocryphal books (Old Testament).

Dead Sea scrolls.

Judaism--History--Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D.

Judaism.

Qumran community.

Jews--History--586 B.C.-70 A.D.

Jews.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 318 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

In this book, Ari Mermelstein examines the mutually-reinforcing relationship between power and emotion in ancient Judaism. Ancient Jewish writers in both Palestine and the diaspora contended that Jewish identity entails not simply allegiance to God and performance of the commandments but also the acquisition of specific emotional norms. These rules regarding feeling were both shaped by and responses to networks of power - God, the foreign empire, and other groups of Jews - which threatened Jews' sense of agency. According to these writers, emotional communities that felt Jewish would succeed in neutralizing the power wielded over them by others and, depending on the circumstances, restore their power to acculturate, maintain their Jewish identity, and achieve redemption. An important contribution to the history of emotions, this book argues that power relations are the basis for historical changes in emotion discourse.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Copyright information

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction Power and Emotion in Ancient Judaism: Emotion Discourses and Jewish Feelings of Power

I.1 Feeling Power in Contexts of Power

I.2 Why Do Emotions Have a History?

I.3 Discourses of Emotion and Power Relations

I.4 The Power of Ancient Jewish Emotion Discourses

Part I Jewish Emotional Resistance to Gentile Power-Over in the Greco-Roman Diaspora

1 Emotional Resistance to Physical Power-Over: The Performative Power of the Public Spectacle in 4 Maccabees

1.1 Power Struggles for Control over Emotion Discourse

1.2 The Performative Power of Emotional Resistance

1.3 Martyrdom As Alternative Form of Power

1.4 The Role of Emotion in Contests of Power

Power-Over

Emotional Resistance to Power

Power-to

Emotional Power-Over

1.5 Martyrdom As Spectacle: The Effect of Emotional Resistance on an Audience

1.6 Importance of the Body in the Spectacle of Emotional Resistance

Provoking Emotional Change through Emotional Contagion

Mechanisms for Facilitating Empathy and Emotional Contagion in 4 Maccabees

1.7 Conclusion: The Historical Context of 4 Maccabees and the Jewish Emotional Habitus

2 Emotional Resistance to Domination: Feeling Rules as Proxies for Power in Joseph and Aseneth

2.1 Feminine Resistance to Masculine Emotional Domination

2.2 Anger and Courage in Their Ancient Context

2.3 Aseneth's Post-conversion Repudiation of Manly Anger

2.4 Aseneth's Post-conversion Repudiation of Manly Courage

2.5 Aseneth's Pre-conversion Anger

2.6 Aseneth the Monotheist and the Attributes of Courage

2.7 Philanthropia As the Product of Pity-Oriented Courage

2.8 Conclusion: Philanthropia and the Historical Context of Joseph and Aseneth.

3 Resistance to Emotional Stereotypes: Emotional Stereotypes and Power Dynamics in 3 Maccabees

3.1 The Stereotype of Jewish Hate and Control over Emotion Discourse

3.2 Royal Power and Hubris in 3 Maccabees

3.3 Royal Anger and Mercy: The Contrast between the Emotions of Ptolemy and God

3.4 Conclusion: Competing Emotion Discourses and the Power of Jewish Feelings

Part II Jewish Emotion Discourse in Response to Divine Power-Over: Emotions in the Context of Tragedy and Trauma

4 Overcoming Divine Power-Over: Righteous Anger in 1 Maccabees

4.1 Divine Anger and the Misguided Anger of the Seleucids

4.2 Hasmonean Anger and Affirmation of Divine Power-Over

4.3 Shifting Power Dynamics and Emotional Experience: The Relationship between Anger and Grief

4.4 From Seleucid Anger to Jewish Joy

4.5 Conclusion: Jewish Emotions in 1 Maccabees

5 Coping with Divine Power-Over: Grief in 4 Ezra

5.1 The Empowering Effect of Grief

5.2 Divine Love and Manifestations of Divine Power-Over

5.3 Ezra's Grief and the Elusive Nature of Divine Power

5.4 Ezra's Request for Divine Pity

5.5 The Resolution to Ezra's Grief

5.6 Authorizing Ezra's Grief: Moses and Biblical Ezra As Paradigms of Grief

5.7 Grief As Jewish Emotion: The Message for 4 Ezra's Audience

5.8 Conclusion: Feeling Rules As Responses to Trauma

Part III The Dead Sea Sect As Emotional Community: The Power and Powerlessness of Feeling Like a Sectarian

6 Feeling Rules in the Construction of Communal Identity: Sectarian Feelings in the Hodayot

6.1 Emotional Community and the Making of a Sectarian

6.2 Human Powerlessness and the Discourse of Shame and Disgust

6.3 Shame and the Emotional Power of the Maskil

6.4 Joy and Gratitude of the Powerful Sectarian

6.5 Sectarian Love and Hate: The Power of Affinity and Estrangement.

6.6 Conclusion: Arranging Power Relations through a Collective Emotional Style

7 The Power of Fear: Strategic Manipulation of Fear in the Construction of a Sectarian Emotional Community

7.1 The Role of Fear Discourse in Arranging Power Relations

7.2 Danger and the Emotion of Fear in the Hodayot

The Powerlessness of Sectarian Fear

Sectarian Fear and Divine Power

The Power of Sectarian Fear

7.3 Managing a Community's Fear in Pesher Habakkuk

7.4 Collective Memory As a Strategy for Managing Fear

7.5 Empathy and Collective Memory in Pesher Habakkuk

7.6 The Relationship between the Teacher Hymns and Pesher Habakkuk

7.7 Conclusion: The Pro-social Dimension of Fear Discourse

8 Sectarian Ritual and the Cultivation of an Emotional Habitus

8.1 Ritual As Emotional Practice

8.2 The Covenant Renewal Ceremony in 1QS: Empowering the Sectarian to Break with Belial

8.3 The Presence of the Insincere Sectarian: Disempowering the Ritual Actor

8.4 The Covenant Renewal Ceremony As an Emotional Practice of Love and Hate: Empowering the Sect

8.5 Cultivating a Habitus of Sectarian Discipline

8.6 The Recalcitrant Sectarian and the Ritual As an Emotional Performance of Commitment to God

8.7 Ritual Ablution As Emotional Practice

8.8 Divine Purification As a Canonical Message in Ritual Ablutions

8.9 A Sectarian's Knowing Body: Ritual Ablutions As an Emotional Practice of Shame, Disgust, and Grief

8.10 Ritual Ablutions As the Pathway to a Pure Community

8.11 A Sectarian's Knowing Body: Ritual Ablutions As an Emotional Practice of Joy, Honor, and Gratitude

8.12 Conclusion: Emotional Practices of Power

Conclusion

C.1 The Interdependence of Power and Emotion

C.2 Emotion Discourse, Community, and Values

C.3 The Political Dimension of Emotion

C.4 Why Do Emotions Have a History?

Bibliography.

Primary Source Index

Modern Author Index

Subject Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 04 Jun 2021).

ISBN:

1-108-91706-2

1-108-93463-3

1-108-91761-5

OCLC:

1195819457