House of Weeping: The Motif of Tears in Akkadian and Hebrew Prayers by David A. Bosworth (review)

Though this meticulously researched and well-written investigation of weeping and prayer started as two separate studies, David Bosworth soon realized that weeping and prayer are actually connected social actions. Both prayer and weeping are uniquely human behaviors that have as their goal social response and reintegration of relationship, both divine and human. B.’s project is to connect psychological and scientific studies of weeping and theories of prayer in order to analyze the motif of weeping in Akkadian and Hebrew prayer texts. Both weeping and prayer are attempts to share emotion and also to socially regulate those emotions. These expressive measures, weeping and prayer, have both personal and social goals, to express a sense of helplessness and also to attain support and recognition from the recipients of the prayer, whether divine or human. As B. states, “both weeping and prayer are social behaviors by which people seek to coregulate their emotions with others, both human and divine, and to elicit help and support from them” (p. 3). B.’s book is organized in a direct and easily accessible manner, with a thorough and useful introductory chapter, two chapters that discuss weeping in Akkadian and Hebrew prayer respectively, and a final comparative chapter.

One central concept, attachment theory, is important to understand B.’s discussion. Attachment theory originated as a way to investigate and describe how children relate to caregivers in order to establish and maintain emotional and physical support and nurturance. Over time, this relational theory has expanded to address relationships at different stages and in different contexts of human life. Attachment theory is based in evolutionary understandings wherein human relationships are recognized to be an essential factor in human survival. In secure attachment relationships, whether with parents or caregivers, romantic partners, or peers, individuals learn to regulate their emotions within that relationship to “provide a safe haven and a secure base” (p. 5). For instance, when in distress, a child will seek the company of an attachment figure who provides assurance and the confidence necessary to meet life’s challenges. B. sees in the Akkadian and Hebrew prayers evidence that ancient people understood God to be an attachment figure and they utilized prayer as a means to regulate their emotions. When a person was in distress due to illness or a sense of divine anger or abandonment, prayer was a way to restore relationship with God by mollifying divine anger and inviting God to be responsive to the conditions of distress.

In this context, weeping may be seen as a relational tool to restore relationship with an attachment figure, which is a shared use of weeping in both corpora, according to B. There are, however, some differences in the way weeping is depicted in Akkadian and Hebrew prayer. Most notably, the Akkadian prayers evidence a wider variety of linguistic means of expressing the weeping motif. The Hebrew prayers employ the motif of weeping with much less linguistic range, an interesting observation that is difficult to explain. The similarities between the corpora seem to outweigh the differences, which B. attributes to a common foundation in the needs of attachment (p. 135). B. argues that both corpora utilize tears primarily as a way to assuage God’s anger; in fact, weeping is most evident in both corpora in situations in which God’s wrath figures prominently. In both corpora, weeping provides a way to create an emotional connection and empathy in a dialogic relational exchange, prayer.

The exegetical chapters offer much insight into the depiction of weeping in each of the corpora B. examines. One of the most significant contributions of this book pertains to the ongoing study of models of selfhood evident in ancient texts as well as the understanding of emotion and selfhood. B. discusses the emotional life of the individual who prays in a way that undermines notions of Western individualism that still trouble understandings of the...