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Tag Archives: Emotion

Romans 12, How to Live Together, 5.3

15 Wednesday Dec 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in Church History, Romans

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body, Church Conflict, Emotion, Romans, Romans 12

The Body as Evidence

In Matthew 9, a paralytic was brought to Jesus. Rather than immediately heal the man (which we assume the hope of the paralytic’s friends), Jesus says, “Take heart my son; your sins are forgiven.” Matt. 9:2.

This immediately provokes outrage in the scribes. How could Jesus claim to forgive sins?

Jesus then asks them a question, “For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”

It all depends. If Jesus is a charlatan, then it is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” That spiritual status does not produce a bodily state which is immediately visible to all. Thus, if he is lying, the lie cannot be seen.

However, if Jesus is telling the truth, then the forgiveness is the more difficult status. God alone can forgive sins; and such forgiveness will be purchased by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (“Jesus our Lord, who delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Rom. 4:24-25)

Jesus heals the man, as a demonstration of his power over the effects of sin (since death and disease are the result of sin’s influence in the world). He does so without a prayer that God would work at his request, but upon his own command.

From that display of over the body, one can infer Jesus’ power over the unseen spiritual status of sin.

That parallel exists in the case our life in the church. We Christians so easily profess our love for one-another. Our pastors speak of the “beloved,” when addressing the congregation. We speak of the unmerited and free forgiveness of others, just as we have received ourselves. We say we believe that we will, “forgiv[e] each other, as the Lord has forgiven” us. Col. 3:13

But those ideas which we so praise so often fail to materialize in the body. We say these things, but we do another. We praise humility and say that we would never blow a trumpet that others would see our righteousness, and then proceed to make the world knows our pious intentions and thoughts.

It is easier to be a hypocrite in practice, to profess an unseeable spiritual state, than it is to enact in the body humility and love and forgiveness.

Actual life in the body, both our own bodies, and the Body of Christ is what Paul requires here in Romans 12. We are to enact and embody this humility and love and forgiveness in the most flesh-crossing manner.

The world will stand by like the scribes seeing the paralytic before Jesus. They will say, this is crazy, you do not really love your enemy. You can say that, but unless I see love in action, embodied love, blessing given against your best personal interest, we will not believe you.

But Romans says, your body must be the visible place of this work.

By fully considering the depth of what is meant by the “body,” we will see just how rich a display of God’s glorious work is meant here in Romans.

The Body as a Physical Location

The connection between “body” and “sacrifice” would be immediately known by any First Century reader in a visceral manner that eludes a modern reader. I have known gone to a temple with a garlanded goat and watched a priest slaughter the animal and then divide its body.

I one was taken on a tour of a then-empty slaughterhouse. The steps in dispatching the dismembering the animal were explained and the implements for each task were displayed, but the actual “rendering” of an animal I did not see.

My experience goes no further than cleaning a fish. But there is a fundamentally different experience in slaughtering a large mammal. And that is an experience which all people in Paul’s time would have immediate knowledge.

A sacrifice entails the presentation of a body for slaughter. And so, when Paul says we must “present our bodies,” it would come not with a metaphorical distance but with an immediate revulsion. The sensation to be understood is the ransacking of my skin and bones.

Paul qualifies his instruction with the oxymoronic “living”, a “living sacrifice”. But whatever else Paul is demanding of the Romans, it is a matter not of metaphor or idea, it is a matter of flesh and bones.

What does this matter for us? Whatever Paul commands in this passage is not something we can hold at arms-length. He is commanding that we be physically present in some painful process. The emphasis on the body is a recognition that this will entail more than just thought, but will entail the visceral reactions of the body, the churning of emotion. And when we think of the circumstances which Paul will present in these few verses, we can see this may be a disturbing thing.

In short, I am calling you to be there at the place of potential conflict, at the place of humility, in the place of these other believers. This is not a matter of idea, it is a matter of life.

Plutarch’s Marriage Advice, Section 38: Passions and Quarrels

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Greek, New Testament Background, Plutarch

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Affections, Conj, Emotion, emotions, Euripides, Passions, Plutarch, Plutarch Moralia, Plutarch translation, Plutarch's Marriage Advice

The previous post in this series may be found here: http://wp.me/p1S7fR-241

Euripides was right to correct those who add the lyre to wine. It’s best to call for music when someone is a passion or depression, not merely as an added pleasure to pleasures.

You should consider it a fault for two to lie down together solely for pleasure and then live apart just because one of them is angry.

Especially at such times they shall call upon Aphrodite; she is the best the physician for their trouble. Doesn’t even the Poet write of Hera

I will free them from their angry quarrel

And lead them in love to their marriage bed.

Greek Text and Notes:  Continue reading →

But David Strengthened Himself

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Samuel, Biblical Counseling, Obedience, Prayer, Psalms

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1 Samuel, Biblical Counseling, David, despair, Emotion, Lord, Obedience, Prayer, Psalm 43, Psalms, Ziklag

On the most difficult aspects of biblical counseling comes when emotion controls the counselee. Someone in the midst of a difficult circumstance such one facing disease, loss of a home, loss of a job, divorce or marriage trouble, a child who has turned badly will often face and experience powerful emotions. The emotions alone are merely emotions, a subjective valuation of an event.

The troubles comes not with the emotions per se but more the control the emotion exercises over the person. Who overcome with emotion may think (ironically) themselves incapable of obedience. When conforming to one’s emotions without reason, one often resorts to various sins in an attempt to manage the world as seen through the emotion.

Thus, a husband in a bitter marriage may express bitterness toward his wife, even though God has commanded love. The wife of an unbelieving drunkard may complain and seek to manipulate her husband, even though The Lord has prescribed a gentle, pure heart for such a situation. A parent who has lost a child may grieve, but as those who have no hope.

The story of David and the sack of Ziklag illustrates what one may — and must do — when faced with overwhelming tribulation:

1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire
2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way.
3 And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.
5 David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.


1 Samuel 30:1-6. David suffers like the rest, but he does not despair overmuch. Rather, in the midst of his pain he seeks the help of God.

The counselee may ask, How can I take hold of God when in such pain? What would it be to take hold of God from here? How could I pray? The 42 & 43 Psalms give a picture of this. Psalm 43 in particular shows the back and forth as one reasons with oneself and calls out to God: I am in distress, but God ….:

1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Pathos as an Element of Speech

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Ministry

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2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:11, 2 Corinthians 5:20, Biblical Counseling, Emotion, emotions, How to Argue Like Jesus, Imagery, Jesus, logic, Ministry, Pathos, Paul, Persuasion, Persuasive Speech, repetition, Shared Artifacts, The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod, Thomas Brooks

(As part of the course on Business Law at The Masters College, I include a discussion on how to make an effective and persuasive argument. The following are some notes on the emotional content of a persuasive speech.  Learning how be a more effective communicator is useful for all sort of activities — including Christian ministry. By including appropriate emotional content, you are seeking to make your proposition clearer and more accurate. For example, a sermon on the majesty of God which induces an emotion of levity as opposed to reverence would misrepresent the text. Or, a sermon on joy which does not make an emotional space for joy would misrepresent the topic.

One cannot read the Bible without noting that the book of Lamentations seeks to produce sorrow and then hope through sorrow — it is not a disinterested theological tract on suffering. The story of Ehud and Eglon (Judges 3:15-30) is written to produce a sarcastic smirk about idolatry followed by welling triumph.

In counseling, the counselee will typically come overwhelmed by emotions. While the goal is not merely the transfer of emotions to some new state, biblical counseling must take into consider the emotional content of the counsel. To ignore the emotional state of the counselee would be deny the explicit command of Scripture , “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). Such emotionally appropriate information must entail more than tears and smiles, it most also infuse one’s speech.

As part of their training, I have the students read the book How to Argue Like Jesus, by Joe Carter and John Coleman. I happily recommend the book to anyone seeking a good introductory text on persuasive speech. The notes below are meant as a supplement to the material contained in the book.)

Pathos: Emotional content and emotional connection are necessary elements to be persuasive in communication. Before going further, note that persuasion does not mean to deceive.  In 2 Corinthians 5:11, Paul writes, “we persuade men”. In in 5:20 he implores others to be reconciled to God. 

A logical talk devoid of passion will not persuade. An emotional speech devoid of truth and logic will swindle: you will persuade for the short term, but when the trick is found out, you will be hated.

Elements of pathos:

Imagery: We are largely moved by sight: if we see a starving baby we weep. If we merely hear about a starving baby, we may feel a twinge, but little more. A fine writer will cause you to see the circumstance by means of words.

Jesus uses extremely graphic language to make his point. Here is an exercise: take the text of the Sermon on the Mount and mark every single instance in which Jesus paints a word picture. Note how Jesus does not just say, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is sovereign.” Rather, he points you to animals and plants – which likely would have been present when he was speaking – and uses that picture to demonstrate his point.

Shared emotional ties: If you share some content, some value, some story, some “artifact” with the audience, use that shared element to connect to the audience. Now, it is perfectly possibly to manipulate someone by means of such a trick. Perhaps the most famous or infamous instance of this is waiving the bloody shirt:

bloody shirt,  in U.S. history, the post-Civil War political strategy of appealing to voters by recalling the passions and hardships of the recent war. This technique of “waving the bloody shirt” was most often employed by Radical Republicans in their efforts to focus public attention on Reconstruction issues still facing the country. Used in the presidential elections of 1868, 1872, and 1876, the strategy was particularly effective in the North in attracting veterans’ votes.[1]

Thus, stories about George Washington – or stories about “your neighbors” being foreclosed upon; stories about growing up in a poor neighborhood (before I became a millionaire politician) and thus can “feel your pain”[2] or understand your circumstance – all can be very effective to tie you to the audience. They feel they can trust you, because you are similar to them.

Expressing emotion: When persuading, it can be very useful to express appropriate emotion. By expressing emotion you show yourself to be human, to be like the audience. You also cue them up on how to understand the statement. Movies do this when there is a sad scene and the camera cuts to someone crying: since we tend to imitate the emotions we see (we catch the emotion), showing emotion makes it easier for audience to share and then to express the same emotion.

Conversely, not showing emotion, or showing the wrong emotion, can be devastating for one’s standing with an audience.  George H.W. Bush famously looked down at his watch during a debate and gave the impression that he didn’t care (emotionally) about what was happening (he may have just wanted to know the time, but it was the impression that he created which mattered)  http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/17/a-damaging-impatience

Four years earlier, Michael Dukakis was asked a question about the death penalty and his own wife being the victim. His response made him sound like some sort of automaton (I certainly do not attribute that lack of love to the governor): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxKFJ3UAbco

Creating emotional content by rhetorical structure: Something as simple as repetition, when rightly done, can create emotional content.  Here is an example, taken almost at random, from Thomas Brooks:[3]

Look upon death as a rest, a full rest.

A believer’s dying day is his resting day . . .

  from sin,

  from sorrow,

  from afflictions,

  from temptations,

  from desertions,

  from dissensions,

  from vexations,

  from oppositions,

  from persecutions.

 

This world was never made to be the saints’ rest.

Arise and depart, for this is not your resting place,

because it is polluted! (Micah 2:10)

 

Death brings the saints . . .

  to a full rest,

  to a pleasant rest,

  to a matchless rest,

  to an eternal rest!

To see many more such examples (this was a matter of which Brooks has particular skill) look for the “choice excerpts” from each of the books:

http://gracegems.org/Brooks2/suffering9.htm

http://gracegems.org/Brooks/Mute%20Christian%20QUOTES.html

http://gracegems.org/Brooks/choice_excerpts.htm

et cetera.

Here is a strategy for making an argument: I heard a variation on this technique explained by a senior lawyer when I was just a clerk, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them.”

State your proposition: Do not worry, because God is sovereign.

Elaborate, demonstrate, prove.

Restate your proposition: If you can do this in a pithy and clear way, even better.

In the first few sentence, Brooks raises the proposition:

First, There is a stoical silence. The stoics of old thought it altogether below a man that hath reason or understanding either to rejoice in any good, or to mourn for any evil; but this stoical silence is such a sinful insensibleness as is very provoking to a holy God, Isa. 26:10, 11. God will make the most insensible sinner sensible either of his hand here, or of his wrath in hell[4].

Having raised the proposition, Brooks next tells a story which demonstrates his point that a Stoical silence is actually wicked:

It is a heathenish and a horrid sin to be without natural affections, Rom. 1:31. And of this sin Quintus Fabius Maximus seems to be foully guilty, who, when he heard that his mother and wife, whom he dearly loved, were slain by the fall of an house, and that his younger son, a brave, hopeful young man, died at the same time in Umbria, he never changed his countenance, but went on with the affairs of the commonwealth as if no such calamity had befallen him. This carriage of his spoke out more stupidity than patience, Job 36:13.

And so Harpalus was not at all appalled when he saw two of his sons laid ready dressed in a charger, when Astyages had bid him to supper. This was a sottish insensibleness. Certainly if the loss of a child in the house be no more to thee than the loss of a chick in the yard, thy heart is base and sordid, and thou mayest well expect some sore awakening judgment.

Brooks interrupts the examples to stop make a comment upon the situation. By doing so, Brooks is showing you how to respond. Note the graphic language used express his outrage.

This age is full of such monsters, who think it below the greatness and magnanimity of their spirits to be moved, affected, or afflicted with any afflictions that befall them. I know none so ripe and ready for hell as these.

Having made his comment, provides yet another example (this time citing to Aristotle and Seneca, who would be understood as great human authorities – though certainly not as great as Scripture):

Aristotle speaks of fishes, that though they have spears thrust into their sides, yet they awake not. God thrusts many a sharp spear through many a sinner’s heart, and yet he feels nothing, he complains of nothing. These men’s souls will bleed to death. Seneca, Epist. x., reports of Senecio Cornelius, who minded his body more than his soul, and his money more than heaven; when he had all the day long waited on his dying friend, and his friend was dead, he returns to his house, sups merrily, comforts himself quickly, goes to bed cheerfully. His sorrows were ended, and the time of his mourning expired before his deceased friend was interred.

He makes another valuation, thus showing one should respond and then restates the original proposition: the silence commended in Scripture is not the silence of the Stoics:

Such stupidity is a curse that many a man lies under. But this stoical silence, which is but a sinful sullenness, is not the silence here meant.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 295.

 


[1] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/69963/bloody-shirt

[3] Thomas Brooks was a literary genius. If he had not been a Puritan, he almost certainly would be required reading in any literature department. He was Spurgeon’s favorite writer. As you read Brooks, you will see where Spurgeon learned his style of speaking and writing. In addition to be an extraordinary writer, Brooks was a profound and practical pastor. The quote is from a book of his called The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod. The book concerns how a Christian may properly respond to trials brought by God. In the first stage of his argument, he begins by explaining the possible meanings of the concept of silence in the face of trials. The section quoted is the first kind of “silence” which could be meant.

[4] Note the word play: Brooks works off of both the sound and the meaning of the words:

                God will make

                                The most insensible sinner sensible [note the “s” sounds]

                                                either of his hand here,

or of his wrath in hell.

Catullus 8a (Translation and Notes)

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, New Testament Background

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Biblical Counseling, Catullus, Emotion, Latin, Latin Poetry, Logos, love, New Testament Background, Pathos, Persuasion, poem, Poetry, Propaganda, Translation

Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire,
et quod vides perisse perditum ducas.
fulsere quondam candidi tibi soles,
cum ventitabas quo puella ducebat
amata nobis quantum amabitur nulla.

Translation:
Catullus: pathetic! Your foolishness, stop!
What you know to be dead, is dead indeed.
Yes, bright days did shine so often for you
When that girl did come and lead you about
-That girl we loved! Like no one ever loved!

Notes:
Miser Catulle: vocative: Poor/miserable Catullus
desinas ineptire: stop foolishness/absurdity
et quod vides: And what you see
perisse: perfect infinitive, used with indirect discourse: pereo, to be destoryed, ruined, interesting conotation, to be desparately in love with — which makes an excellent quibble (Wheelocks 6th ed, 164-5: Recognizing idrect statements is easy: look for the main verb of speech, mental activity, or sense perception with an accusative + infinitive phrase following. The greater challenge is in translating, since you must nearly alway supply that and convert the infintive phrase into a regular clause …translating the accusaive subject as if it were a nominative, you must then trasnform the infinitive into a regular finite verb in the correct tense noting that tenses of the infinitive, like the participle are relative not absolute).
perditum ducas: (accusative, direct object) thing ruined, destoryed; verb: you consider regard.
fulsere quondam: what someday/one day bright/shining
candidi tibi soles: bright for you, you accustomed
cum ventitabas: When you often came
quo puella ducebat: When the girl you led
amata nobis: loved by us
quantum: how great, how much
amabitur nulla: that could be loved none

Other translations:

Sir Richard Francis Burton:
Woe-full Catullus! cease to play the fool
And what thou seest dead as dead regard!
Whilòme the sheeniest suns for thee did shine
When oft-a-tripping whither led the girl
[5] By us beloved, as shall none be loved.

Leonard C. Smithers,
Unhappy Catullus, cease your trifling and what you see lost, know to be lost. Once bright days used to shine on you when you used to go wherever your girl led you, loved by us as never a girl will ever be loved.

Further comments: Catullus begins this farewell poem to convince himself to give up on the girl to give up on him. The poem is funny, because he is so plainly pathetic. He moves around how greatly he desired her and how much he hates her living.

His counsel is to change his emotion by changing his view of the girl. It is counsel by propoganda: On one hand, he speaks glowingly of himself: When he speaks of the girl, he cannot help but speak of himself! Catullus is willing to mock himself, by mocking his pride (which is itself an element of his self-counsel) – but he still comes out on top.

It also demonstrates the extraordinary degree to which he is controlled by his emotions. His logic is subject to his emotions. Facts can posited or denied to suit the emoiton he desires.

What would be appropriate bilical counsel for a man in such a circumstance? Surely we cannot deny the reality of emotion nor the affection of love (as well as the conduct of love). Where exactly is the fault in Catullus’ cirumstance?

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