2020-21 Academic Catalog

What are the political implications of calling a book "sacred"? How does reading a sacred text, such as the Bible or Qur'an, become a subversive act? How does it become a strategy of domination? Focusing mainly (but not exclusively) on Judaism and Christianity, we will explore these questions through a variety of examples from acts of reading and textuality among rabbis and ancient Mediterranean bishops to politicians and political leaders in the U.S. today. We will consider not only how books are read, but also how they are banned, burned, put on trial, and used to divine the future.