A Cognitive-Embodiment Approach to Emotioning and Rationality, Illustrated in the Story of Job

Abstract

This article examines the connections between emotions, religious faith, and the Santiago theory of cognition. Understanding the culture of religion requires a distinctively reflective awareness that religion both arises from emotions and helps shape our rational experiencing of possibilities for emotioning. Such a complex relation between emotions and religious faith is explored with reference to the Santiago theory of cognition, which asserts, among other things, that cognition is the bringing forth of a world. This embodied cognition perspective provides an alternative metaphor for examining constructs such as faith and religious emotions. The biblical story of Job will be used to illustrate the rationality of emotions displayed by Job in his response to personal tragedy.