Bookish Traditions: Authority and the Book in Scripturalist Religions, Part I
Level:
Master's CEU credits:
2 Academic year:
2009/2010 Academic year:
2011/2012 Semester:
Fall Start and end dates:
6 Sep 2009 Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]:
Department of History Stream/Track/Specialization/Core Area:
Culture, Religion and Intellectual History in a Comparative Perspective CEU Instructor(s):
Aziz Alazmeh CEU Instructor(s):
Nadia Al-Bagdadi Additional information:
Aim of the course
The purpose of this course is on the one hand an introduction to sacred texts and on the other to scrutinize the pre-modern conceptions of the canonical texts, the techniques of reading involved in their elaboration and use, and the social, religious and political processes involved in the formation of the canons of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Furthermore, students will be able to use critically the relevant terms of textual and theological interpretation and criticism and will be exposed to an adaption of crucial terms of reference and tools of interpretation pertaining to each of the three traditions.
Mandatory General Readings
• F.E. Peters, The Voice, the Word, the Books : the sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2007.
• Northrop Frye, The Great Code, New York 1982,(esp. ch. 5).
• Articles “Kur’an”, “Hadith”, “Tasfir”, “Sama” and “Idjaza”, in Encyclopedia of Islam2,(EI2) new edition.
• Articles “Biblical Literature”, “Canon” and “Scripture”, in Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. M. Eliade, Chicago 1987.
Learning Outcomes:
It is expected that students will emerge from this course having acquired the basic factual knowledge, concepts and analytical skills for handling scriptural material, and religious traditions based upon scriptural material, knowledgeably and comparatively. It is expected that students will have acquired basic analytical skills for dealing, by extension, with the critical reading of texts more broadly understood. Assessment :
The class will start with a series of lectures by the instructors, followed by discussions. Subsequently, the classes will involve discussing readings assigned to each of its sessions, introduced by students in turn, who will report on these readings, relate them to each other and to the overall theme of the class, and comment on them critically. These presentations and class participation throughout the sessions will account respectively for 40% and 20% of the final assessment. The remaining 40% will be allocated to a critical account of a book to be agreed between the student and the instructors, and to be submitted at the end of term. Class attendance is mandatory.
It is highly recommended that students taking this course will also take the related Reading course, which is designed to approach the subject matter more closely by detailed analytical reading of, and commentary upon, selected primary sources.
Full description:
Week 1
Introduction to the topic and the seminar
Week 2
From scripture to text, from oral to written traditions
• William A. Graham, Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion, Cambridge University Press, 1987, 1993, Chapter: ‘Of Written and Spoken Scripture’, pp. 45-66. [
pdf]
• Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “Scripture as Form and Concept”, in Rethinking Scripture, ed. Miriam Levering, SUNY, Albany 1988, pp. 29-46. [pdf]
• Jack Goody and Ian Watt, The Consequences of Literacy, in J. Goody (ed.), Literacy in Traditional Societies, Cambridge 1968, pp. 27-68. [pdf]
Week 3-5
‘The People of the Book’ - Foundational texts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Week 3
The Hebrew Bible
• Peter Ackroyd, The Cambridge History of the Bible: From The Beginnings To Jerome, Cambridge University Press, 1970, Chapter III, section 5. pp. 67-114. [pdf]
• [see article ‘Biblical Literature’ in Encyclopedia of Religion] [pdf]
Week 4
The New Testament
• Bruce Metzger, The Text of the New Testament. Its transmission, Corruption and Restoration. London, NY 1964, pp. 94-145. [pdf]
• G. Stroumsa, Early Christianity – A Religion of the Book?, in Homer, the Bible and beyond, pp. 153-173. [pdf]
[Articles ‘Biblical Literature’ in Encyclopedia of Religion] [pdf]
Week 5
The Qur’an
• Geo Windgren, Holy Book and Tradition in Islam, in Holy Book and Holy Tradition, ed. F.F. Bruce and E.G. Rupp, Grand Rapids, 1968, pp. 210-233. [pdf]
• Daniel A. Madigan, The Qur’an’s Self-image. Writing and Authority in Islamic Scripture, Princeton 2001, pp.53-77, 125-44, 167-79. [pdf]
[See articles from the EI] [pdf] [pdf]
Week 6
Textual Interpretation I: Doctrine
• D. Stern, “On Canonization in Rabbinical Judaism”, in Homer, the Bible and Beyond, Literary and Religious Canons in the Ancient World, edited by Margalit Finkelberg and Guy G. Stroumsa, Leiden, 2003, pp. 227-252. [pdf]
• Tzvetan Todorov, Symbolism and Interpretation, London 1983, pp. 97-130. [pdf]
Week 7
Textual Interpretation II: History
• Tzvetan Todorov, Symbolism and Interpretation, London 1983, pp. 131-162.[pdf]
• F. Kermode, “Institutional Control of Interpretation”, in idem., The Art of Telling, Cambridge, MA, 1983, pp. 168-84. [pdf]
Week 8
Interpretation: Spiritual Aspects
• Nicholas Boyle, Sacred and Secular Scriptures: A Catholic Approach to Literature, University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. Ch. 1, 2, 3, 5. [pdf]
Week 9
Authority in Interpretation and Canonization
• Kendall W. Folkert, “The ‘Canons’ of Scripture”, in Rethinking Scripture, Essays from a comparative Perspective, ed. M. Levering, SUNY, Albany 1988, pp.170-179. [pdf]
Week 10
Canon and the Canonisation Process - Christianity
• John Barton, “Unity and Diversity in the Biblical Canon”, in Die Einheit der Schrift und die Vielfalt des Kanons, Berlin and New York, 2003, pp. 11-26. [pdf]
• S. Chapman, “How the Biblical Canon began”, in Homer, the Bible and Beyond, ed. M. Finkelberg and G. Stroumsa, Leiden 2003, pp. 29-51. [pdf]
Week 11
Canon and Canonization – Islam and Judaism
• Aziz Al-Azmeh, “The Muslim Canon from Late Antiquity to the Era of Modernism”, in Canonization and Decanonization, ed. A van der Kooij and K. van den Toorn, Leiden 1998, pp. 191-228. [pdf]
• Moshe Halberthal, People of the Book, Cambridge, MA, 1997, ch. 1 and 2 (pp. 11- 44 and 45-89). [pdf]
Week 12
Final Discussion and outlook
