HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422 Page 1 of 8 Original Research The punished and the lamenting body Author: The 5 lamentations, when read as a single biblical book, outline several interacting bodies in a 1 Pieter van der Zwan similar way that dotted lines present the silhouettes and aspects of a total picture. Each also Affiliation: represents action, building into a plot that can be interpreted psychoanalytically to render its 1Department of Old depth and colour content. In addition, by focusing on the body and its sensations, this study Testament, University of can facilitate the visceral experience of the suffering of collective and individual bodies by the South Africa, South Africa recipient. Corresponding author: Pieter van der Zwan,
[email protected] Introduction Dates: This study is dedicated to my doctoral supervisor, Prof. Eben Scheffler, whom I met for the first Received: 11 May 2018 time in 1993 at my final oral examination for the BD degree before we started our long journey Accepted: 15 Sept. 2018 about the celebration of the body in the book of Song of Songs. During these 25 years, we have Published: 26 Feb. 2019 become deep friends where conflict can be accommodated, just as it is in the collection of How to cite this article: testimonies about crisis and traumatic experiences of God, testimonies that have inspired us both, Van der Zwan, P., 2019, ‘The also in our ageing bodies. One particular expression of this struggle Prof. Scheffler once verbalised punished and the lamenting as being imprisoned by the body, when I accidentally made him walk in the wrong direction at an body’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies airport some years ago.