L470 27684 SEMINAR:  LITERATURE AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Herbert Marks

4:00p-6:30p W (20 students) 3 cr., A&H.

TOPIC:  "The Agnostic Bible"

There is arguably no book of world literature that has been more
embroidered, distorted, and mis-read than the Hebrew Bible. As the
basis of Christian theology and the ultimate source of Jewish law,
it is commended even today as a moral and metaphysical guide, a
treasury of dogmatic truth. But there is a significant strain in the
Bible--perhaps the predominant strain--that is impatient with piety
and suspicious of dogmatic wisdom, particularly the wisdom of those
who presume on their knowledge of the uncanny central figure it
calls God or Yahweh. Indeed, if one reads against the grain of
tradition, the Bible is a book that revels in contradiction, invites
questions but frustrates answers, views human morality, like di-
vine “goodness,” with skepticism, and treats its characters,
legendary or historical, with irreverent license.

In this course we shall be exploring this skeptical strain in
biblical literature, beginning with the books of Ecclesiastes and
Job, continuing with parts of the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic
History, and concluding with the Gospel of Mark. Theoretical
questions about the epistemology of reading (how we know what we
know) will be a constant focus, but we shall approach them through
specific readings and narrowly focused discussion. Secondary texts
will include essays on general and special hermeneutics as well as
selections from modern biblical scholarship. Students will be asked
to write several short exer-cises and a final paper.

Interested students should have a good background or active interest
in literature or philosophy. A prior course on the Bible would be
helpful but is not essential.