READING SCRIPTURES: Three Traditions of Wisdom
Dr. James Hatley
Phone: 677-5072 (O); 543-7635 (H)
Office: Philosophy House, 103
Office Hours: TO BE ANNOUNCED IN CLASS. Please make an appointment with
me if you are unable to use the scheduled office hours.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In what way might the scriptures of three different religious
traditions provide an opportunity for philosophical reflection on the nature of
wisdom and the fundamental questions of human existence? Taking up this inquiry, we will confront a
selection of canonical writings from Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. For the most part, care will be taken to read
(or at least to begin to read) each text in a manner that is supported by the
tradition that authored it. Put
otherwise, we will take care to adopt hermeneutical principles (i.e. principles
of reading and interpreting) that are pertinent to each respective
tradition. But at times we will move
beyond these hermeneutical principles to pose other ways of understanding the
texts. Further, we will seek not only to
make sense of these scriptures within the context of their traditions but also
to bring them into the world of our own philosophical and even religious
concerns. We will even, in a limited
manner, try our own hands at writing in a religious vein. In summary, we will test the interface
between religious writings and philosophical reflection in order to see how
religious practices and sentiments might lead to a renewed appreciation of what
it means to be a philosopher, a “friend of wisdom.”
REQUIRED TEXTS
JPS—Jewish Publication Society
Translation of Tanach JPS English Only
RVS--Christian Gospels, Revised Standard Version
BD Avivah Zornberg: The Beginnings of Desire—Reflections on Genesis
JEE Phillippe
Nemo: Job and
the Excess of Evil (with
additional essays by Emmanuel Levinas and Michael Kigel)
HBJ Henry
Bugbee: A Reading
PJC Brad Young: The Parables—Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation
MRS Dogen: Mountains
Rivers Sutra
KPS Franz Kavka, Some Parables (Handout).
RESERVE SHELF TEXTS
Midrash Rabbah: Bereshit (Genesis), Vols. I and II
The Aekdah
GRADING
Weekly Questions (10)……………………..30%
Midrashic Aggadah (2)……………………..10%
Parable………………………………………05%
Response Papers (3)………………………..40%
Class Presentation (1)………………………10%
Participation…………………………………05%
ASSIGNMENTS
Weekly Reading Questions will be turned in by the student at least ten times during the semester. This allows you three times of not turning in the questions. This assignment requires that you respond in a short essay a typewritten page in length to a question given the week before about a reading we will be discussing that day in class. Your short essay must be turned in at the beginning of the class in which the reading is to be discussed. You should bring two copies of this assignment to class--one to turn in and the other to help with your notes and to share with the class, if called upon. If you turn in reading questions after the day they are due, the best grade you can receive is a C.
Midrashic
Aggadah involve
the student writing her or his own interpretive parable or story in response
to: a) The Response of Abraham to Elohim; b) The
Plight of Job. In each case, the student
will juxtapose a second Biblical text to the text given for consideration, in
order to illuminate the significance of the latter.
Parable: The student will write a parable from their
own imagination that fulfills the conditions for a parable set out by Brad
Young in Chapter One of PJC.
Response Papers
Class
Presentation: Once during the
semester each student will lead a discussion of the questions assigned for that
week in class. This will occur on
Tuesday, the first day the class meets every week. The student serving as the discussion leader
will have written out her or his answers to the questions for that week
beforehand and will be prepared to share those answers in order to invite other
student’s to participate in the discussion.
The student should also come up with two additional questions that
students and professor should consider.
HONOR
CODE: Each written assignment should be accompanied by the following
statement, dated and signed by the student: “This assignment was written entirely by me in my own words, except
for quotations from and references to another person’s work, which I have been
careful to point out. I have in no way made use of the words or ideas of
other persons without attribution.”
Weekly Themes, Readings, Assignments, etc.
WEEK ONE (1/31, 2/2): A Later Draft of Creation: Psalm 104
Readings: Psalm 104; BD, xi-xix
Reading Questions (due Thursday, 2/2): a) Look at the excerpt of the poem by Wallace Stevens on BD, p. xv. For Zornberg, how is the poet like Rashi, the rabbinical interpreter of biblical texts? b) Discuss the distinction between reading one’s personal history in the Torah (Bible) with reading into the Torah. How much freedom should a reader of a biblical text exercise in making her or his interpretation? c) What does Zornberg mean by the “hearing” reader?
WEEK TWO (2/7, 9): Creation—Is there any End to Beginning at the Beginning?
Reading: JPS, Bereshit/Genesis, 1-11; BD, 3-53
Reading Questions: (due Tuesday, 2/7): a) Discuss the types of mystery at play in the beginning of Bereshit/Genesis. b) What is the connection of “Sinai” to creation? c) Discuss the story of Adam or Cain in regard to the question of what it might mean to stand in the presence of G-d. d) How might the flood symbolize the relationship of G-d with humankind?
WEEK THREE (2/14, 16): Abraham—In Exile beyond Exile.
Readings: JPS, Bereshit/Genesis, 12-21; BD, 53-96
Reading Questions: (due Tuesday, 2/14) a) Discuss what Noah might have learned from his time in the ark. b) What is the significance of Abram's wandering? How does it contrast with that of Cain? c) For Abraham how is love of G-d revealed as a form of madness?
WEEK FOUR (2/21, 23): The Akedah and Sarah’s Tears.
Readings: JPS, Bereshit/Genesis 22, 23; BD, 97-143
(TUESDAY) Reading Questions: 1) What do you think is the meaning of G-d’s request of Abraham to sacrifice his son? 2) Is Sarah’s reaction to the Akedah (the sacrifice of Isaac) a good one? Why or why not? Which reaction do you prefer—that of Abraham or that of Sarah?
(Thursday)
Assignment DUE: 1st Midrashic Agadah—Using the two stories of the palace and its master
(discussed by Zornberg in treating Abraham’s search
for G-d) as your guide, write your own story (Aggadah)
that serves to interpret the meaning of “lech lechah,” of Abraham’s calling by G-d.
In writing your Aggadah, make use of a
biblical passage from the Abraham story that stirs up your religious or
spiritual or ethical imagination. In
doing so, bring that passage into proximity with at least one other passage
that we have read so far in the Book of Genesis (not necessarily from the story
of Abraham). You can also refer to
stories and words discussed in Zornberg. Or stories that you or others of your time
are now living. Keep in mind that your Aggadah should
be a creative act of your imagination—but also one that is fed by your
spiritual, religious or ethical longings.
Your Aggadah should also be careful to
distinguish for its reader how a particular passage from Genesis is to be
analyzed (interpreted). Your Aggadah should exploit the tension that comes from paying
close attention to the text of Genesis, even as you let the meaning of that
passage take flight in your imagination.
LENGTH: At least 300 words,
likely more.
Midrash Aggadah Explained More information on Midrash and Aggadah
WEEK FIVE (2/28, 3/2): The Suffering of the Individual Human—A Philosophical Approach to the Book of Job
Readings: JPS, Book of Job; JEE, 1-41
Reading Questions: 1) Describe what Nemo terms the “repulsive” reading of the Book of Job. Do you agree with his assessment of this reading? Why or why not?; 2) Describe the different aspects of anxiety Job feels. Which is the most crucial and why?
WEEK SIX (3/7, 9): The Sting of Evil
Readings: JPS, Book of Job; JEE, 81-112
Reading Questions: 1)Explain what Nemo means when he claims: “The evil that Job suffers is eternalized.” (p.99) Why is eternity a much more difficult issue than is death for Job and Nemo? 2) What does Nemo mean in Chapter Four (“The Intention” by the “Giver”?
3/9 Assignment DUE: 1st Response Paper focusing on Bereshit/Genesis
Response Paper Assignment: On page 20 of The Beginnings of Desire, Zornberg quotes Levinas who argues that the Biblical narrative is not a “theosophy,” which is to say, not a description of G-d’s characteristics. Rather the Biblical narrative asks its reader to struggle with how G-d’s address of humans has profound implications for human existence—for human doing and thinking. Taken in this way, the narration of G-d’s creation of the world and its inhabitants calls humans into a reception of and contributing to the work of creation enacted by G-d. Humans are created in the image of G-d, which is to say, in the image of a creator who creates. From your reading of Genesis and Zornberg, pick out at least two themes that emerge in human existence when humans struggle to respond to the address of G-d as creator. Develop these two themes in terms of at least some of the figures found in the chapters of Genesis we have read. Remember that the “project” of creation is a unique one—an action that is difficult, if not impossible, to account for in earthly terms. Creation places humans radically into question, particularly in regard to their authority over themselves, not to mention their fellow humans and all other living things. Your paper should develop some aspects of this quite precarious situation.
WEEK
SEVEN (3/14, 16): An Answer (sort of) to Evil
Readings: JPS, Book of Job; JEE, 112-182
Reading Questions: 1) What does Nemo mean by “faith” and how is it the “fruit of the excess of evil”?; 2) What is the structure of revelation in Job, according to Nemo? What does Nemo mean, do you think, by “revelation”?; 3) Do you agree or disagree with Nemo’s depiction of G-d? Why or why not?
Spring Break: 3/18-3/26
WEEK EIGHT (3/28, 30): A Midrashic Inflection to the Book of Job
Readings: JEE, 205-249
Reading Questions: 1) According to Kigel, from whence comes the accusation of Job? 2) What does Kigel mean by "prescriptive theodicy"?
WEEK NINE (4/4, 6): Parables
Readings: RSV, Luke 11:5-8 and 18: 1-8; PJC, 3-68
4/6 Assignment Due: 2nd Midrashic
Aggadah: Compose a story set in the contemporary
world that plays upon a question that Nemo or Kigel claim is being asked in the book of Job. Relate your story to specific passages or
verses from Job, as well as to statements taken from Nemo
or Kige’s text..
Reading Questions: 1) In your reading find an example of how a Hebraic concept adds depth to a Greek term from one of Jesus’ parables. Discuss your own reaction to the term in question. 2) Do you agree with the author that the parables should not be removed from the ethnic culture for which they were intended? Why or why not? What comes from agreeing with the author’s argument? 3) How would you interpret the meaning of the verses from Luke 11: 8-9 that accompany the parable about the friend we would visit at midnight for three loaves of bread?.
WEEK TEN (4/11, 13)
Readings: RSV, Matthew 20:1-6, Matthew 25: 14-30, Luke 19:11-27, Mark 13:34; PJC, 69-100; Kafka Parables (handout)
Reading Questions: 1) Compare either “My Destination” or “An Imperial Message” by Kafka to one of the Jesus parables you’ve read for this week. What similarities and differences are there between the two parables?; 2) What do you think Jesus’ parables mean to say about the notion of grace? What characteristics of grace do the various parables show? (IF YOU DO BOTH QUESTION 1 and 2, YOU WILL RECEIVE DOUBLE CREDIT!)
ON PARABLES
Many complain that the words of the sages are only
parables and so not useful in our everyday life. And everyday life, after all, is all we
really have. When the sages say, "Go
to the other side," they do not mean one ought to actually go there, as if
the path pointed out were truly there.
They are speaking of some incredible, fabled "over there,"
with which we are not acquainted and
that the sages cannot bring nearer. They cannot help us here. All their parables actually say is that the
incomprehensible is incomprehensible, and this we already knew. But life's
everyday pains, these are for us something else altogether.
And so one said: "Why do you restrain
yourself? If you were to follow
parables, then you yourself would become one and in this way you would already
be freed from your daily troubles."
Another said:
"I bet this also is a parable."
To which the first replied: "You have
won."
To which the second replied: "But, sadly, only in
parable."
The first: "No, in actuality. In parable, you have lost."
---Kafka
WEEK
ELEVEN (4/18) NO CLASS 4/20 (Thursday)!!!
Readings: RVS, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 18:23-35, Luke 15:11-32, Luke 7: 41-43; PJC, 101-168
Reading Questions: 1) What happens to the significance of the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” when it is seen instead as the Parable of the Two Lost Sons? 2) How might this parable resonate against the story of Abraham’s two sons—Ishmael and Isaac? 3) Make up a question of your own choosing and answer it.
WEEK TWELVE (4/25, 27): A Taoist Inflection to the Book of Job
Readings: Henry Bugbee on the Book of Job
Reading Questions: 1) What does Bugbee mean by the impersonality of the rose and the rain? How can this impersonality be a good? 2) What does Bugbee say about the issue of Justice in Job?
4/27 Assignment Due; 2nd Response Paper focusing on
the Book of Job: Using Kigel and Nemo
as your guides, describe how the Book of Job
responds to the project of
theodicy, to a justification of the ways of G-d in the face of a creation in
which there is an excess of evil and in which suffering seems unrelated to
guilt. In doing so, make use of verses
from the Book of Job in order to bolster your point. Three plus pages typewritten. Due Thursday, April 27th.
WEEK THIRTEEN (5/2, 4): Hermeneutical Instability in Zen Buddhism
Reading
Questions: 1) Given what you have read
in the two dharma lectures, discuss how one might walk the wilderness in an
enlightened manner. 2) Discuss the
virtues of water. Can water be your
teacher? How? 3) How
might the earth's "tawny grammar" teach us foolishness?
WEEK FOURTEEN (5/9, 11): When the Mountain is a Mountain.
FINALS WEEK
I.
Do either a) or b) but not both:
This semester we have read scriptural texts
that are transformative in nature: they ask that our very reading of them
changes our lives. With this thought in
mind:
a)
Write a response paper to Dogen’s
Mountain Rivers Sutra in which you explore how reading it might change
the way you walk in relationship to the natural world, the world evidenced in
rivers and mountains, in rocks and trees, in marshes and ponds and oceans, but
also in gardens and lawns, even in sidewalks and parking lots, not to mention
in Walmarts and our own homes. How might walking be a practice of
enlightenment, a response to a world fraught with suffering and delusion? Then compare and contrast this account with
the manner of walking you think is recommended by G-d’s
speech from out of the whirlwind in the Book of Job. Make sure to use quotations from each work to
exemplify your points.
b)
Write a reponse paper to a
parable of Jesus discussed in class, in which you explore how reading it might
change how you engage in your struggle to live well in a world wrought with suffering
and injustice. Then compare and contrast
this account with how either the story of Job or of Abraham from the Hebrew
Testament (the “Tanach” in Jewish parlance) might
affect your efforts to live a good life.
How does each side of this comparison and contrast amplify the sense of
the other side? Make sure to use
quotations from each work to exemplify your points.
The response papers should be 4+ pages in
length.
II. After finishing your response
paper. Write either a parable or a koan (respective to whether you worked with Jesus’ or Dogen’s words) that addresses some of the themes you have
raised in your response paper.
The parable/koan
can be around a page in length, perhaps a bit shorter, if it is very original
and incisive.