Quoting Derrida, in The Animal at Unease with Itself: Death Anxiety and the Animal-Human Boundary in Genesis 23 Isaac M. Alderman draws attention to the fact that humans are the only animals who are disturbed by nakedness. This unease with regard to our own bodies is an important aspect of the study of disgust and death anxiety. Alderman seeks to apply terror management theorists focus on death anxiety to biblical studies and to utilize the concept of animal reminder disgust??the visceral reaction to reminders of our animality??to better understand the opening chapters of Genesis, dealing particularly with themes of mortality, the human body, and the animal-human boundary in those chapters. After describing relevant aspects of cognitive science, terror management theory, and animal reminder disgust, Alderman demonstrates, using Genesis 2?3 (and the role of clothing as a marker of the animal-human boundary there) as a case study, that an interdisciplinary approach that draws on cognitive science can illumine the biblical text in important ways.Isaac M. Alderman (PhD, The Catholic University of America) is adjunct faculty at Baruch College. He has published articles and presented at conferences on various biblical passages in the context of cognitive science, pedagogy, and reception theory.
This timely monograph brings biblical studies into a fruitful dialogue with cognitive research and critical animal studies, and as such will be a significant aid to scholars working on the human condition and its expression in the Bible. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
In this work, Isaac Alderman brings together animal studies and cognitive research, specifically terror management theory. He has produced a thought-provoking study of Genesis 23, one that also becomes a wider meditation on the human condition. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly
Chapter 1: The Cognitive Turn
Chapter 2: The Hero who Faces Death
Chapter 3: Embodiment lă˛
![The Animal at Unease with Itself: Death Anxiety and the Animal-Human Boundary in Genesis 2-3 [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/3/9/7/2_6642995.jpg "The Animal at Unease with Itself: Death Anxiety and the Animal-Human Boundary in Genesis 2-3 [Hardcover]")