The Peoples of the Books: Sacred Texts in Social Contexts
RELI 376
Spring 2013 not offered
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| Certificates: Middle Eastern Studies |
This course will explore the diverse roles of sacred texts in the everyday lives of religious communities. It will focus, in large part, on differing understandings of scripture in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, but it will pose a set of theoretical questions about textual interpretation and authority that are relevant to a wide range of religious (and secular) traditions. How, we will ask, do individuals and communities engage with religious texts and narratives? How do social structures and institutions shape the process of textual interpretation? How is the immense authority of sacred texts negotiated in the context of everyday social life? How are ancient texts reimagined in contemporary literary works and artistic productions? How, in short, do texts and communities--peoples and their books--work to construct each other in religious life? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS RELI |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Jonathan Boyarin (ed.), THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF READING
Harold Coward, EXPERIENCING SCRIPTURE IN WORLD RELIGIONS
Vincent Crapanzano, SERVING THE WORD: LITERALISM IN AMERICA FROM THE PULPIT TO THE BENCH
Matthew Engelke, A PROBLEM OF PRESENCE: BEYOND SCRIPTURE IN AN AFRICAN CHURCH
Anna Gade, PERFECTION MAKES PRACTICE: LEARNING, EMOTION, AND THE RECITED QURAN IN INDONESIA
Moshe Halbertal, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: CANON, MEANING, AND AUTHORITY
Susan Handleman, THE SLAYERS OF MOSES: THE EMERGENCE OF RABBINIC INTERPRETATION IN MODERN LITERARY THEORY
Shulamit Hareven, THE MIRACLE HATER
Charles Hirschkind, THE ETHICAL SOUNDSCAPE: CASSETTE SERMONS AND ISLAMIC COUNTERPUBLICS
Brinkley Messick, THE CALLIGRAPHIC STATE: TEXTUAL DOMINATION AND HISTORY IN A MUSLIM SOCIETY.
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Examinations and Assignments:
A series of short papers on the course reading, and a longer paper based on independent research. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course meets the Thematic Approach requirement for Religion majors. |
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