RELI 149 - Unlocking the Bible: Traditional and Radical Readings

Semester Offered: Spring
1 1 unit(s)

(Same as JWST 149) Mark Twain once said that “when a library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me.” The Hebrew Bible, (or Old Testament, as it is known to Christians,) is a book that can feel startlingly contemporary, and can be radically moving. It has also undoubtebly been misread and misunderstood. Our course together revisits familiar stories—often talked about, but increasingly rarely closely read—in the context of textual and interpretative history. We consider what the “Good Book” might have meant in its original ancient Israelite context, and how it has since accumulated meanings in various interpretive communities over the millennia since its composition. What can we learn from the interpretations of thinkers in earlier times about how the Bible might speak to us as postmodern, politically and gender-aware thinkers in an academic context— secular or religiously observant alike? No previous knowledge of the Bible or the study of religion required. Agnes Veto.

Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS