Contextual Biblical Interpretation

Abstract

Abstract Affect theory offers an opportunity to further develop the already influential field of contextual biblical interpretation by considering what the place of the body’s inner registers, its emotions, its impulses, and energies in the practice of interpretation is. For affect theorists, these add complexity to our understanding of the subjectivities of textual characters and events, and their interpreters. Where proponents of contextual biblical interpretation astutely unpack the ideological and material conditions that influence interpretation and often function to exclude certain voices, the interplay between those conditions and the resulting impact on the body’s interior aspects—and indeed how they in turn impact others—would add further nuance in the framing of context. Through such readings, we not only gain insight into the unspoken or unwritten conditions that influence interpretive decisions, we also create space for other and non-typical ways of representation in the process.