A historical psychology How do the New Testament documents present issues of passion, will, identity, and perception? How did the earliest followers of Jesus understand their experiences, behaviors, and suffering? These questions and more are addressed in this stimulating work by one of the most productive Continental New Testament scholars. Rather than approaching the New Testament with a Freudian, Jungian, or other modern psychological theory, Berger illuminates historically how peoples of the first century described their human experiences in relation to their encounters with God, Christ, demons, and the power of their own desires and will. "Biblical psychology investigates the way in which the reality of human existence is presented within the horizon of divine revelation. Such an issue can hardly be a matter of indifference to anyone who would understand the divine revelation in its most immediate context or, expressed in theological terms, who would reflect upon the Incarnation in all its dimensions. To be sure, in this study psychology is going to be understood in a strictly historical sense, which means it will differ considerably from modern or contemporary modes of psychological understanding." from the IntroductionAuthor Biography: Klaus Berger is Professor of New Testament Theology at the University of Heidelberg. He is the author of a dozen scholarly works, including Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament (1995), and The Truth under Lock and Key? Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1995). Charles Muenchow has translated numerous works in biblical and theological studies.