Dr. Victor Matthews, Dean of the College of Humanities and Public Affairs and Professor of Religious Studies, published his 19th (!) book, Experiencing Scripture: The Five Senses in Biblical Interpretation. Recently, Adair Seifert interviewed Victor for The Missouri State Journal.
Victor’s primary academic field is in Biblical Studies, specifically the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and in the past several years he has focused on viewing the texts through the lens of the social sciences. Experiencing Scripture: The Five Senses in Biblical Interpretation, an outgrowth of this research, explores the social world from the perspective of the people who lived in those times, through their senses.
According to Victor, “Social science exploration of the texts opens up a new avenue for students to explore. So often we see the biblical texts as law or literature. What I want is for it to become is alive for the people who inhabit the text and, in turn, for those who read it, something that is identifiable in us rather than something long ago.”
You can read the blog journal here, https://news.missouristate.edu/2023/03/21/experiencing-scripture-through-the-five-senses/, listen to the audio, and find the full audio script.
Experiencing Scripture: The Five Senses in Biblical Interpretation is available from the publisher, Fortress Press, and on Amazon.