Theo-Politics: Political Readings of the Hebrew Bible

The seminar presents the Hebrew Bible as a primary source for political theory. It offers readings of some highly charged theo-political episodes through which some key political concepts are explicated and problematized. Special attention is given to systemic violence, states of exception, the politics of plagues, and resistance. The readings are guided by (mostly) contemporary thinkers who contributed to the study of these concepts in non-biblical contexts. Reconstructing God’s multiple political personae and several types of biblical theocracies, the seminar questions the gap separating our putatively modern, secular political imagination from that of the political cultures documented in the Bible.