Scholarly Conference: The Passion Narratives In The Biblical Psalter

On January 25, 2024, a conference titled “The Passion Narratives in the Biblical Psalter” brought together scholars to explore this powerful theme. While around 75% of the Psalms are considered psalms of lament, surprisingly few end in pure sorrow. Instead, even in the midst of pain, doubt, and emotional struggle, the psalmists often find a way to voice deep faith and renewed trust.

This was the starting point for presentations that approached this topic from various perspectives, all of which were presented at the Center for Biblical Research (a department of the Biblical Institute) in the center of Zagreb.

Presenters and Topics

Danijel Berković: Silence and Suffering in Psalm 39
Krešimir Šimić: Psalm 22 in Light of René Girard’s Sacrificial Theory
Monika Bajić: Divine-Human Interaction: A Comparative Theological and Emotional Analysis of Biblical Psalms and the Quran
Jasminka Domaš: The Written and Oral Torah and Its Influence on Contemporary Jewish Prose and Poetry in Croatia and Israel
Kotel Dadon: The Poetry of Suffering in the Book of Lamentations and the Concept of Suffering in Rabbinic Literature
Dalibor Vrgoč: Translational Variations of the Concept of ‘Suffering’ in Contemporary Croatian Translations of the Psalter
Ratko Medan: Soliloquy in Psalm 42 and Psalm 43
Ervin Budiselić: Suffering in Psalm 51