This study covers three research topics as follows: 1) "A Typological Trajectory of Pathos in Ancient Hebraism and Hellenism-A Comparative Investigation of the Intellectual Background for Pathos in the New Testament" 2) "Some Aspects of Theological An ...
This study covers three research topics as follows: 1) "A Typological Trajectory of Pathos in Ancient Hebraism and Hellenism-A Comparative Investigation of the Intellectual Background for Pathos in the New Testament" 2) "Some Aspects of Theological Anthropology in Jesus’ Emotions" 3) "The Rhetoric of Psychological Modulation and Psychagogic Therapy
in Paul’s Emotional Expression." The first topic seeks to present a comprehensive trajectory of the cognitive perspectives on pathos in ancient Hebraism and Hellenism. It first brings the divine emotions into critical discussion, while analyzing the accounts of the creation story and salvation history with a focus on God’s emotional thrust such as regret, jealousy, and wrath. Then it moves on to investigate human emotions of some kinds(i.e. sorrow and lament) as reflected in the Psalms and prophetic literature, which shows a self-reflective and self-subversive momentum to overcome the status quo of Israel in depravity. In the Hellenistic context, this study starts from the Stoic idea of apatheia as the basic goal of understanding human emotions, which aims at a therapeutic control over what they consider a disease. Yet the Socratic exception occurs since his followers see an educational function in a particular emotional expression as it could awaken students from ignorance on the one hand. On the other, the Aristotelian perspective on emotion also worked positively first in his rhetorical theory involving politics and judicial matters, and second in catharsis theory embedded in Greek tragedy, especially with a view to its teleological function. Finally, in the setting of the Hellenistic Judaism which covers the wisdom literature, Philo, and 4 Maccabees, traditional Hebraic perspectives on human emotions still persisted with an emphasis on their practical benefits in daily routine life in such a direction as boosting up ‘good emotions.’ However, in a metaphysical level, the Hellenistic ideal of apatheia was also introduced in a way to fulfill the Torah-based wisdom, sometimes in conjunction with ascetic practices and rigorous causes of martyrdom. The second research topic aims to analyze critically Jesus’ human emotions described in the Gospels with a focus on its theological implications and practical messages in conjunction with the current ecological landscape of the Korean church. For this purpose, the tripartite set of Jesus’ emotions are featured, as joy and sorrow, lamented sympathy from the gut, and the outburst of horror, sorrow and anguish at Gethsemane are strung together to illuminate the human portrait of Jesus. In particular, these emotions are interpreted as a referential indication of Jesus’ communicative capacity toward his internal state of mind as well as various outward situations in which he confronted diverse people. Intrinsic of his genuine human nature, Jesus’ emotions are drawn to meet his own need in such a way as to make sense of what surrounds his public ministry, not to speak of his personal desire. Beyond the easy-going soteriological perspective on Jesus’ passion, his human emotions further explains away the multifaceted legacy of apatheia in the Korean church, in which emotions of whatever kind are to be suppressed, manipulated, and perverted for different reasons in a polemical context. All in all, this provides us with a reasonable ground that Jesus’ human emotions are to be reinterpreted anew from the perspective of Christology as anthropology, so that one might elaborate the thesis of what it means to be a human person and what theological significance is engaged in such a part of human nature. The third and final topic of this triadic research focuses on Paul's abundant expressions of emotion in various kinds. His emotional appeals garbed in delicate rhetorical foils have dynamic contexts in which he had to confront diverse issues set against his congregations or his opponents. Of various emotions, ‘sorrow’(lypē) in particular is pervasively detected throughout his letters, serving the primary function of psychological modulation and therapy in the mutual communication between Paul and his church members. This study seeks to illuminate the overall features embedded in Paul’s emotions, while analyzing what kinds of emotion are expressed in what kinds of situation, and what responses would be anticipated from the recipients respectively. In consequence, unlike his contemporary Stoics and other philosophers, it is confirmed, Paul did not consider human emotions, albeit expressed in negative tones, to be eliminated or controlled in any circumstance. Yet he was often overwhelmed in emotional expression, which perhaps goes back to his deep meditation on Jesus’ passion in the backdrop of the lament Psalms. The non-elite feature of Paul’s emotional topography highlighting lypē further reflects the characteristic point of his mission activities directed at a large mass of populace.