RELI 30153: How to Read the Bible:

Story and Politics in Judges and Ruth

Tuesday 2:00-4:45, Beasley Hall 204

Prerequisites: Religion 1003, 1013, or by instructor's permission

UCR: Critical Inquiry (CI)
 

Professor David Gunn

Beasley Hall 207 or 221; tel: 257-7441; email: d.gunn@tcu.edu

Class web site: www2.tcu.edu/depts/religion/discuss
 

Course Description

This course explores distinctive characteristics of ancient Hebrew narrative and investigates why readers produce very different interpretations of biblical stories. In particular it asks how gender affects the reading of narratives of violence. That question will involve asking further questions about what counts as violence. Taking the books of Judges and Ruth as our base we look at how these narratives have been interpreted over the centuries, we examine whether men and women have differed in the way they see and understand violence in the texts, and we ask how we might interpret these stories and communicate our interpretations in today's world.

The class will tackle these issues inductively: that is, questions and potential answers will arise out of a close reading of the selected texts and the ensuing discussion rather than through set lectures on particular topics. Students will be expected to contribute actively to this process through critical thinking and discussion in and out of the class, regular assigned reading (biblical text and secondary sources), research on certain issues/topics, and construction of a learning workshop with a small team of fellow students. They will keep a web-based journal and write two short papers.
 

Course objectives

The course is designed to help students:

• to learn some basics of biblical (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) "poetics" and contemporary critical theory as it applies to biblical interpretation;

• to appreciate the role of readers in the interpretation of texts; to learn why the Bible may be considered, like other texts, to be multivalent (conveying more than one meaning); and to learn to appreciate the relationship between meaning and context;

• to learn to read the Bible as a gendered text, that is, a text which inscribes the gender codes of its authors/originating culture, and a text accessible to interpretation in terms of the gender codes of its readers/appropriating culture;

• to confront some of the violence given expression in the Bible (but often masked in the religious communities that espouse the Bible as an authority) and explore strategies for understanding what the violence might mean in context;

• to gain some knowledge of the history of biblical interpretation - in particular how the books of Judges and Ruth have been understood in Western culture;

• to learn how to gain critical perspective on one's own beliefs about the Bible and religion in order better to reflect on and refine those beliefs; and to formulate an informed position in regard to an issue of religion or values arising from the interpretation of a biblical text and to articulate a reasoned defense of that position.

• An electronic journal, posted in the TCU (Religion Department) Discuss web site (www2.tcu.edu/depts/religion/discuss), giving (i) a report of reading and viewing (of relevant books, articles, films, etc.) in preparation for the class; (ii) preparatory analysis of the material being discussed, including the formulation of two or three questions relating to issues of methods or values raised by the reading and viewing; and (iii) reflection after the class on the cogency (or otherwise) of the discussion as a whole or of some selected item of particular import arising from the class discussion; students must be prepared to articulate briefly, and indicate how they would defend, their own position in relation to the issue under discussion. [Worth 50% of final grade]

• Pre-class entries must be completed before class and no later than 10:00 am Tuesday. Post-class entries must be completed no later than noon Friday of the same week.

• A midterm assignment (c. 1,500 words) on the Book of Ruth. [Worth 15% of the final grade]

• To be posted on the web site by noon, February 26^th.

• A workshop (designed in consultation with the instructor). This will involve taking shared responsibility in a small team for a class presentation. Presentation may take various forms, including oral presentations, distribution of written reports or documentation, visual art, poetry, dance, or dramatic sketch. Creativity is encouraged. Further details will be given in class.[Worth 20% of the final grade]

• Groups will make their presentations on either April 24^th or May 1^st.

• A critical review (c. 1,500 words) of central issues raised in the class over the semester. [Worth 15% of the final grade]

• To be posted on the web site by noon, May 7^th.

 

Listed in the Schedule, below, under each topic. (There may be some additional material occasionally.)

The required textbooks are:

David M. Gunn and Danna Nolan Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 1993)

Gale A. Yee, ed., Judges and Method: New Approaches to Biblical Studies (Fortress Press, 1995)

Biblical passages listed under Schedule. For this purpose each student should have a Bible (preferably Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, TANAKH, or Authorised [King James] Version) and bring this Bible to each class.

Directions for obtaining other required reading will be given in class. Additional readings include:

T. K. Beal and D. M. Gunn, "Judges, Book of," in John H. Hayes, ed., Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999) vol. I, pp. 637-647.

T. K. Beal, K. A. Keefer, and T. Linafelt, "Literary Theory, Literary Criticism, and the Bible," in John H. Hayes, ed., Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (Abingdon Press, 1999) vol. II, pp. 79-84

Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, "' More than Seven Sons': Critical, Rabbinical, and Feminist Perspectives on Ruth," in Far More Precious than Jewels: Perspectives on Biblical Women (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991) pp. 55-84

Danna Nolan Fewell, "Judges," in Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, eds., The Women's Bible Commentary (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992) pp. 67-77

Amy-Jill Levine, "Ruth," in Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, eds., The Women's Bible Commentary (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992) pp. 78-84

Susan Niditch, “Samson As Culture Hero, Trickster, and Bandit: The Empowerment of the Weak.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 52 (1990) pp. 608-24.

V. C. Phillips, "Feminist Interpretation," in John H. Hayes, ed., Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (Abingdon Press, 1999) vol. I, pp. 388-398

Phyllis Trible, "A Human Comedy," in God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (Fortress Press, 1978) pp. 166-199

Judith Romney Wegner, "Chattel or Person?" in Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the Mishnah (Oxford University Press, 1988) pp. 10-19
 

Schedule

January 16 Introduction to the Course

Ruth 1
 

January 23 Ruth and Naomi ~ 1

Ruth 1 and Genesis 38

Read: Narrative, ch. 1:1-12 and ch. 2:34-45; Trible, "A Human Comedy" (pp. 166-175)
 

January 30 Ruth and Naomi ~ 2

Ruth 2

Read: Narrative, ch. 3:46-63; Trible, "A Human Comedy" (pp. 175-181)
 

February 6 "A Lapful of Grain"

Ruth 1-4

Read: Darr, "More Than Seven Sons" (pp. 55-84)
 

February 13 Ruth and Naomi ~ 3

Ruth 3 and Genesis 29-30

Read: Trible, "A Human Comedy" (pp. 181-187); Wegner, "Chattel or Person" (pp. 10-19)
 

February 20 Ruth and Naomi ~ 4

Ruth 4

Read: Trible, "A Human Comedy" (pp. 188-196); Narrative, ch. 3:75-89; Levine, "Ruth" (pp. 78-84)
 

February 26Midterm assignment, due noon.
 

February 27 Review
 

Read: Narrative, ch. 9:189-194; Phillips, "Feminist Interpretation" (pp. 388-398); Beal et al., "Literary Theory, Literary Criticism, and the Bible" (pp. 79-85)
 

March 6 Achsah and the Story of Conquest

Judges 1-3

Read: Narrative, ch.7:155-163; Judges and Method, ch. 6:119-142 (Fewell, "Deconstructive Criticism")
 

March 13 Deborah and Jael

Judges 4-5

Read: Judges and Method, ch 4:65-88 (Exum, "Feminist Criticism")
 

March 20 Spring Break
 

March 27 Gideon and Abimelech

Judges 6-9

Read: Beal and Gunn, "The Book of Judges"; Judges and Method, ch. 3:45-63 (Steinberg, "Social Scientific Criticism")
 

April 3 Jephthah's Daughter

Judges 10-12

Read: Narrative, ch. 5:101-121
 

April 10 Samson and Delilah

Judges 13-16

Read: Narrative, ch.3:63-75; Niditch, "Samson as Culture Hero" (pp. 608-624)
 

April 17 The Levite's Woman

Judges 17-21

Read: Fewell, "Judges" (Pp. 67-77)
 

April 24 Workshops
 

May 1 Workshops
 

May 7 Critical review, due noon
 

END