Everyone comes to the Bible with a set of presuppositions and assumptions. These inevitably color one’s reading of the text and in this book, Vermeulen and Hayes seek to elucidate the role that every reader plays in biblical study and interpretation. They say in the introduction, “it is necessary to acknowledge that reading the Bible is a process that involves both the chosen text and the reader,” (p. 1). This book seeks to equip readers with a set of tools in the field of cognitive stylistics. By cognitive, they say this field is interested in “what happens in the mind [of the reader].” By stylistic, they mean “much more than a handful of rhetorical devices, [but] the form of a text more generally,” (p. 2). The book is aimed at introducing readers to various skills within the field of cognitive stylistics to enhance their Bible reading, regardless of one’s personal motivations for such reading. It claims not to be a classic “hermeneutical how-to guide,” but rather an introduction to a whole new perspective on reading skillfully. Each chapter offers an introduction to the given cognitive linguistic tool being discussed, a brief history of this tool in literature and social sciences, a biblical case study or two for how this skill may be employed, and suggested texts for further individual study and group discussion. One of the most helpful aspects of each chapter comes at the very end with a suggested reading list that functions like an annotated bibliography for each linguistic concept.

Chapter 1 discusses words and their meaning. Hayes argues for considering words within their semantic domain rather than their lexical domain. Lexical domains connect words of the same root and analyze their related meanings, but semantic domains broaden the scope by including words that are “similar in meaning,” which she notes is “extremely helpful when reading longer stretches of text,” (p. 11). Much attention is given to Psalm 119 and the various lexical domains used throughout this famous acrostic that all fall under the “semantic domain” of communication. Through such analysis, argues Hayes, “it becomes apparent that…the accrued meaning is greater than the sum of the parts,” (p. 19).

Chapter 2 looks at how the human brain develops categories of meaning when reading and engaging in all aspects of life. The authors use the term “prototype” to describe the cognitive process of grouping like experiences into categories. These prototypes come with “attributes” and the effect of reading the Bible comes when the biblical authors play with these “prototypes” in unexpected ways. Vermeulen examine three levels of these prototypes that can be observed within the biblical text and demonstrates that “prototypes touch upon some of the key questions that have driven biblical scholarship,” (p. 33).

Chapter 3 deals with the way the Bible plays with readers’ attention and focus through the interplay “the position of an object (figure) against its surroundings (ground),” (p. 40). This chapter looks at the story of Jonah and analyzes the way the author plays with the reader’s focus by shifting attention between the figure and ground. Vermeulen notes, “characters…tend to form figures. They direct the attention of the reader…[until] an unusual element in [the] ground appears,” (p. 42). The cognitive aspect is highlighted in the brief history section of this chapter, as Vermeulen looks at psychological and artistic underpinnings of this figure-ground concept.

In Chapter 4, Hayes asks “whose eyes are we looking through” (viewpoint) and “where are we in physical and conceptual space?” (deixis) (p. 55). Deixis is a term worth defining, as Hayes does. It is: “a function that 1) takes place within a situation of speech, and 2) uses speaker-related elements to designate something in a scene,” (p. 56). Hayes notes that deixis functions in Bible reading on multiple levels: first, the process of reading the Bible is a deictic event (the “writer” is communicating in a non-prototypical way to the “reader”); second, the message of the Bible records many deictic events (direct speech and character interaction is a major part of the narrative structure).

Chapter 5 unpacks the study of “cognitive grammar.” Hayes notes that the emphasis hear lies not on the objective facts and figures of traditional grammar studies, but on the embodied, context-dependent phenomenon of grammar (p. 65). The main thrust of this chapter focuses on one aspect of cognitive grammar study known as “image schemas.” These schemas are how authors specifically construe various grammatical elements in a given context and the role of cognitive grammar is to consider the affect this context-specific construal has on the reader.

Vermeulen carries the conversation of “schemas” forward in chapter 6. Schemas are the brain’s way of processing experiences and categorizing them and evaluating them based on other relevant, lived experiences. Put another way, “a schema is a larger knowledge structure that is more or less stable but dynamic, meaning that our experience will further refine it,” (pp. 81-82). A schema, Vermeulen notes, is part of a reader’s background context and pre-bias, which is an inevitable part of the reading experience, and these schemas both inform one’s reading of the biblical text and are informed by the reading of the biblical text. Vermeulen notes that authors will then intentional play around with the various elements of schemas to mess with a reader’s expectations. It is in the interplay between expectation and reality that the biblical narrative comes alive and where meaning is derived.

In chapter 7, Hayes dives ever deeper into the cognitive realm as she looks at “mental spaces” and “conceptual blending.” These are essentially the cognitive results of the previously mentioned “schemas.” If schemas are what the writer is doing, then “mental spaces” is how the reader is processing and responding to the writer’s prompting. Hayes notes the relevance of Mental Spaces Theory for biblical studies lies in “the idea that meaning is created in the process of reading and talking,” furthermore, “not every reader comes to the [biblical] text with similar life experience or similar presuppositions,” thus a reader must be thoroughly aware of their own existing mental spaces to “discern the edges where presuppositions meet text,” (p. 99).

The next two chapters are closely related as they analyze two grammatical concepts that are commonly discussed in biblical studies: metaphor (chapter 8) and metonymy (chapter 9). In due fashion, Hayes and Vermeulen are not content to simply analyze the traditional grammar behind these literary devices but see a greater depth in discussing the cognitive stylistics involved. In chapter 8, Hayes looks at the cognitive sphere of “Conceptual Metaphor Theory,” which “expands the literary understanding of metaphor by including comparisons between conceptual domains, which can be any coherent organization of experience,” (p. 107). Hayes makes much use of Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By (1980) in this chapter, which introduced the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. In chapter 9, Vermeulen discusses metaphor’s oft-neglected fraternal twin, metonymy. She notes that scholars differ on how to parse the various metonymies—ranging anywhere between three broad categories to upwards of forty-six—but chooses to highlight nine types and specifically focus on three. One of the most compelling cases for the careful study of biblical metonymy comes in Vermeulen’s comment on the frequency with which it is used when the authors speak about God. “A study of these examples [of divine metonymy] and their occurrences will shed light on the biblical authors’ idea about God,” (p. 126).

In chapter 10, Vermeulen discusses “discourse world,” that is, “the world in which a specific reader engages with a text,” which consists of “at least two participants and their perceptions,” namely, the reader and the author. She notes that the “extra-textual world has always been a major concern in biblical studies,” because of the presumption that “the meaning of a text is influenced by the context in which it is produced and read,” (p. 137). Vermeulen wants to emphasize that scholarship has “often privileged the original setting over other settings,” and, in so doing, “they have overlooked the fact that all readings are contextualized,” (p. 138). She contends that more careful attention ought to be given to the discourse world of readers both historical and modern.

In chapter 11, Vermeulen address possible world theory and its impact on biblical studies. She references the theological philosophy of possible worlds, which has its roots in Gottfried Leibniz in the eighteenth century but ultimately boils down possible worlds to their storytelling effect in the biblical narrative (p. 148). Possible worlds make storytelling compelling and believable.  When a writer can paint a picture of a world unlike their own, they are creating a possible world. This kind of thing happens throughout the biblical narrative, particularly within the prophets.

In chapter 12, Hayes discusses the building of text worlds, which in many respects is what the entire book has been about. In short, she defines text worlds as “representations of how we process language as we speak or read,” (p. 155). Hayes is excited by the concept of text worlds because this “pushes the text and the reader together in the process of making meaning,” (p. 156). Much of this chapter stems from and further develops Paul Werth’s original work from the 1980’s and ’90’s, as well as the later developments on his theories put forth most recently by Joanna Gavins in Text World Theory: An Introduction (2007). Hayes argues that text world theory can bring a new degree of clarity to biblical studies, noting that “while the text is the object of study, it is equally important to be aware of the interpreter,” because this will allow the reader to “temporarily bracket their own presuppositions to see more clearly what the text has to say on its own terms,” (p. 161).

Vermeulen and Hayes offer a compelling and thorough primer on a fascinating, innovative, and inter-disciplinary method for studying the Bible. Their approach marries the fields of cognitive theory with literary criticism and linguistic analysis. The book’s highest marks come in the discussion of schema and metonymy, which are shown to be used rampantly in the biblical text and thus greatly warrant further investigation and consideration. The method presented in this book highlights the role of the reader to a greater degree than traditional historical-grammatical hermeneutical methods, at times almost to the detriment of the consideration of the text and its original writer(s). As Vermeulen herself articulates, “the aim of [this] book is not to unravel the intention of the writer(s), but to track how readers make sense of a text, regardless of a writer’s intention,” (p. 48). This is a weak spot in their work, in the opinion of this author. A balanced approach that considers the value in both the original writer(s) and their audience(s) as well as the modern reader would be a helpful corrective against unbridled reader-response hermeneutics. In fact, when held against the words of Hayes on page 161 (quoted above), it would seem that there is even a slight incongruence in the aims of the two authors in this regard. A second qualm with this book is that its methodology is at times daunting and convoluted. In Hayes’s own words, “cognitive grammar on its own is a bit technical and obscure,” (p. 74) and this statement is true of many of the cognitive stylistics and conceptual categories advocated by the authors. They are no doubt helpful skills for careful reading and scholarship, but they require advanced learning in rather technical linguistic as well as psychological and at times philosophical subcategories to be implemented with any proficiency. As a result, the book is not well-suited for lay audiences but would be an excellent tool in the tool chest of a modern biblical scholar, especially one well-acquainted with new literary and social-scientific methods of biblical criticism.

Garrett R. Bagwell
MA Old Testament Student
Denver Seminary
May 2025