VIRTUAL Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

What does it mean to “teach the Bible” in public university settings? While some states in the U.S. are controversially mandating Christian Biblical reading in public K-12 educational settings, the teaching of “The Bible as Literature” in secular university English departments has been ongoing for a century without much controversy. This paper explores the history of university approaches to “The Bible as Literature” while also interrogating its standard teaching methods in relation to issues more relevant to twenty-first century literary studies, issues like: the dual “ownership” of scriptural texts in the context of Jewish-Christian relations, contemporary politics around Jewish/Christian authorial and literary identities, the challenges of creating relevant literary meaning from ancient texts, and the complexities of translation across different groups, historical moments and readers. Centering on the Christian Bible’s cooptation of Hebrew scriptural texts, the course also offers an innovative approach to exploring Jewish identity at different scriptural moments using literary analysis, enabling new approaches to concepts of self/other as well as engaging with the roots of contemporary anti-Semitisms. Applying a reader-based pedagogy of self-reflection and awareness of student and faculty positionality, the course creates a unique learning experience that has proven deeply impactful for the community of learners who take the class. Dr. Scheinberg has been developing the course for over twenty years in different university settings; the paper includes her own research into this teaching approach, as well as reflections on how the course changed her as a teacher and reader.