Metaphorical Landscapes and the Theology of the Book of Job

An Analysis of Job's Spatial Metaphors
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-38884-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 179, 274 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

Reihe: Vetus Testamentum, Supplements

Metaphorical Landscapes and the Theology of the Book of Job demonstrates how spatial metaphors play a crucial role in the theology of the book of Job. Themes as pivotal as trauma, ill-being, retribution, and divine character are conceptualized in terms of space; its imagery is thus dependent on spatial configurations, such as boundaries, distance, direction, containment, and contact. Not only are spatial metaphors ubiquitous in the book of Job—possibly the most frequent conceptual metaphors in the book—they are essential to its theological reasoning. Job’s spatial metaphors form a metaphorical landscape in which God’s character and his creation are challenged in unprecedented ways. In the theophany, God reacts to that landscape. This book introduces a pragmatic synthesis of both conceptual metaphor theory and spatial semantics and it demonstrates their exegetical and hermeneutic potential.

Autoren/Hrsg.

de Joode, Johan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Altes Testament: Exegese, Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Abbreviations

1 Introduction
1.1 Spatial Metaphors in the Prologue
1.2 Hypothesis and Background
1.3 Structure

2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory: A Pragmatic Synthesis
2.1 Metaphor: An Introduction
2.2 What is One ‘Thing’ and What is ‘Another’?
2.3 What is ‘Understanding’ One Thing in Terms of Another?
2.4 The Competitive Edge of Metaphors We Live By
2.5 Critiques of Metaphors We Live By
2.6 Conclusion

3 Spatial Metaphor in Language and Cognition
3.1 Definition
3.2 Spatial Semantics
3.3 Spatial Metaphors
3.4 Conclusion
3.5 Application

4 Boundaries and Containment
4.1 The Body is a Container
4.2 The Boundaries of the Body
4.3 The Boundaries around the Body
4.4 Boundaries in the Prologue
4.5 The Rationale behind These Metaphors
4.6 Conclusion

5 Place and Placelessness
5.1 Retribution is the Attribution of a Place
5.2 Rootedness and Rootlessness
5.3 Metaphorical Objects and their Place
5.4 Conclusion

6 Direction and Distance
6.1 Ethics is a Journey
6.2 Ethics is Distance
6.3 Ill-being is a Moving Object
6.4 Conclusion

7 Job’s Post-Traumatic Spatial Metaphors as Theological Challenges
7.1 Spatial Metaphors in the Prologue and Dialogue
7.2 Job’s Lack of Control and God’s Agency
7.3 Spatial Causality as a Challenge to Retribution Theology
7.4 Conclusion

8 Spatial Configurations in the Divine Speech
8.1 Interpreting the Divine Speech
8.2 An Alternative Geography
8.3 A Different Landscape
8.4 Conclusion

9 Conclusion

Bibliography
Indexes

Über Autor(innen)

Johan de Joode, Ph.D. 2015, KU Leuven, worked at the Universities of Nottingham and Birmingham, and is now a KU Leuven research fellow specializing in corpus and cognitive linguistics as applied to Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls