My colleague, Dr. Isaac Blois, who teaches in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, recently published an academic book entitled The Role of Emotion in Philippians: Discerning Affections. I was intrigued, to say the least, when I learned last summer that he was almost done writing a book about emotions in Paul’s wonderful—and emotional—letter to the Philippians. After getting an early peek at the manuscript, I asked Isaac whether he would be willing to do a short interview with me when the book eventually got released. I’m delighted that he agreed. His book just came out; here is the promised interview.
Ken Berding (KB): Is Philippians really an emotional letter?
Isaac Blois (IB): Yes, Philippians is a letter full of emotion. Just about everyone who’s read the New Testament would agree that Philippians is a great place to go when thinking about the topic of joy in the Christian life. It’s here that Paul exuberantly praises one of his churches, offering them some doctrinal guidance, yes, but mainly giving thanks and rejoicing for the good work that God has been doing among their community. Paul rejoices in front of them (1:18-19), on account of them (4:10), and even together with them (2:18). Paul also calls for this church to imitate him in this, asking that they too “rejoice in the Lord always” (4:4; 3:1).
Some might want to distinguish, however, the kind of joy that Paul evokes here from the everyday, normal experience of emotion. Such a distinction is understandable. Emotions can at times be turbulent and uncontrollable, whereas Paul seems here to solicit a more controlled approach to situations, promoting an intentional choosing of joy even when facing the kind of suffering that would normally provoke frustration, anger, or grief.
Whether or not Paul’s version of joy should be cordoned off from the usual experience of delight, what I would simply call our attention to is the fact that, when it comes to following Christ, how we feel matters. Paul cares a lot about the emotional makeup of the communities that he seeks to guide pastorally, and in doing so he follows in the footsteps of important biblical leaders before him, especially Moses—whose laws dealt not only with what the Israelites did, but also how they felt while doing it (“you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God…rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God in all your undertakings,” Deut 12:18).
So, when Paul tells the Philippian believers that they are to “have this mind in [themselves] which is [theirs] in Christ” (Phil 2:5), he is interested just as much in shaping their pattern of feeling as he is in guiding their pattern of thinking and behaving. We can thus speak of a Pauline orthopathy (a right way of feeling) as an accompaniment to orthodoxy (right doctrine/worship) and orthopraxy (right action) as developed in his letters.
KB: Why focus on emotions in Paul’s letters rather than just on Paul’s doctrine(s)?
IB: My interest in investigating the role of emotion in Paul’s writing is not meant to undercut the significance of Paul’s teaching ministry, but rather to supplement it. Far from our emotions detracting from our doctrinal convictions, it is my contention that the two mutually reinforce one another. Until we feel the appropriateness of the pattern of behavior modeled by Christ, it will be hard to maintain such a way of life for any extended amount of time.
The way I understand emotions places them in close connection to our pattern of thinking about the world. Emotions are directly tied to our evaluations about what matters around us, and so reflection on the significance of Christ’s work in our world ought to have a transformative effect upon what we feel to matter in our lives and surroundings.
Paul even guides readers into just such an evaluative analysis of that which matters most when he prays at the start of this letter that the Philippian believers would have a love that abounds in knowledge “so that [they] might discern the things that matter” (Phil 1:10). The apostle here utilizes the well-known term from the Stoic philosophers of his day, namely, the separating out of that which does not matter (the adiaphora) from that which matters a whole lot (the diapheronta). Because he places this in the context of prayer, he helps us realize that such an appropriate evaluative stance toward the world requires God’s help. Thus, we see here that God is at work enabling believers to feel rightly toward others and the world around them.
KB: In your book you decided to focus on six emotions in Philippians. Are these the only six? Are they as significant as joy?
IB: As I said above, joy is the emotion that jumps out right away when reading the letter. But upon further reflection, we can see that a number of other emotions seem important within Paul’s vision of the complete Christian life. For this book I selected six emotions to analyze: joy, grief, shame, pride, fear, and hope. I realize that more emotions could have been chosen (for instance, envy in 1:17 and 2:3, zeal in 3:6, love in 2:1, disgust in 3:8, gratitude in 4:6), but my hope was to offer a developed treatment of each emotion discussed, rather than merely present a cursory overview of various emotions.
Each chapter focuses on one particular emotion concept, seeking to elucidate how that emotion can be understood from the perspective both of modern psychology and ancient understandings of emotion, and then ultimately to show how Paul positions it within the Christian life. Along with situating this early Christian presentation of each emotion within surrounding pagan ways of experiencing and discussing the emotion, I also show how Paul interacted with Scriptural precursors for the experience of that emotion within the community of faith. For instance, when analyzing Paul’s disavowal of fear (“not being frightened by the opponents with regard to anything,” Phil 1:28) along with his invitation to take up fear (“work out your salvation…with fear and trembling,” Phil 2:12), I discuss both ancient pagan experiences of fear/non-fear, and also Scripture’s important injunction that the righteous take on “the fear of the LORD” in their way of life (Prov 1:7), as well as the covenant promise that those who believe are encouraged to “fear not” (e.g., Deut 20:4; Isa 43:1).
KB: How does reading emotion in Philippians help us read the rest of the Bible better?
IB: Ultimately, my investigation of Paul’s use of emotion in Philippians serves as a prompt to guide readers into a deeper engagement of how emotion functions within the Bible as a whole. Paul is not the only biblical author interested in the felt experience of the community of faith. All through the Psalms we find rich engagement with the internal state of worshipers. We also see faithful men and women across the Biblical narratives who face difficult circumstances and find God’s grace toward them amid their struggles. Just as Abraham hoped against hope when no son was given to him (or when the son that was given to him was almost taken away from him), just as David grieved over the loss of his beloved friend Jonathan, just as Jerusalem felt the shame of her nation being overrun and dragged into exile, so too Paul felt emotions himself and directed the emotions of his converts. As believers, we too will experience emotion in our discipleship to Jesus, and it is my prayer that we will find guidance for our emotional experiences as we read and respond in faith to the Scriptures.
KB: Thank you, Dr. Blois, for your important and helpful study of emotion in Paul’s letter to the Philippians and for sharing a few valuable nuggets from that study today!
Kindle Afresh 