11 - Epilogue

Summary

Grotesque images of the human body can be understood in a variety of ways. I have shown that narrative criticism, depth-psychology, evolutionary theory, experimental psychology, and cognitive science, among other methods, have something important to say about the origins and functioning of the grotesque. One might naturally ask many more meaningful questions. What about social location, economic circumstances, historical events, colonial exploitation, public executions, the oppression of women, nationalism, war, or health conditions? Many of these aspects of social and economic history provide ways to ask more traditional questions about biblical sources than some of the avenues explored in this book.

It is certainly true that concrete religious ideas emerge and spread in certain places at certain times. One way to explain this success is to interpret religious ideas as answers to given historical situations. For example, it has been argued that the idea of resurrection was an answer to the Seleucid oppression of Israel, or to the sufferings that had been exacerbated by that oppression. However, it is unclear how such a causal effect could work. It goes without saying that people can employ different ways of wishful thinking to mitigate their despair. The hope of divine intervention can certainly be one of them. Yet all the human misery in the world in ancient societies and throughout history does not seem to yield a massive belief in resurrection as the solution.