Scriptures in World History

Catalog description

How do books shape history? How does history re-shape books? This seminar examines how the sacred texts of Jewish and Christian religious traditions have been compiled, authorized, represented, manufactured, adjusted, restricted, rejected, reproduced, and consumed from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Smart Phone. It will study how revelation was textualized through a variety of media (e.g., papyrus roll, stone monument, manuscript codex, printed broadside, ritualized speech, digital screen) in order to uncover its historical functions: under what circumstances were the scriptures used to fortify institutional authority? To ignite revolutions? To create communities? To marginalize others? How do all these functions relate to fundamental beliefs in sacred scripture as divinely-revealed truth? These are hotly contested questions among scholars as well as the general public, and in this Spirited Debate First Year Seminar students will be invited both to analyze and engage in these debates.