The Agony and Ecstacy of Religious Belief: The Book of Psalms
365 views · Published 22 August 2012 · 5:47 · Indexed 6 November 2026
Channel: Vanderbilt University · 2012 · Education
Watch video of James Crenshaw presenting "The Agony and Ecstacy of Religious Belief". Biblical Psalms voice the full range of human emotions. Here desperate individuals cry out for relief from their suffering, not the least of which is brought on by a sense of divine abandonment. Here, too, awestruck worshipers sing joyous praise of God who they think has extended inexhaustible mercy to them. In a word, agony and ecstasy are combined in exquisite poetry, as if putting words to God's music. Psalms of lament and praise have a long history, reaching back to the third millennium with the famous lament over the destruction of the city of Ur, Abraham's home town according to the book of Genesis, and with unchecked praise of the god Marduk. This class will examine both the beauty and the anguish of ancient psalms, biblical and extra-biblical.
