New Testament Studies II: Ideological Criticism

3 credits · Divinity School

This course constitutes the second part of a two-part introduction to New Testament Studies as presently conceived and practiced. It is an advanced course, presupposing previous and substantial work in the field and designed primarily for students in the Graduate Department of Religion. The course is also open to advanced and students in the Divinity School. Contemporary biblical criticism may be approached in terms of five interpretive paradigms, each with its own distinctive though complex mode of discourse: historical criticism; literary criticism; sociocultural criticism; ideological criticism; cultural criticism. This second part will examine the role and future of biblical criticism in general as well as the methods and theories at work in the paradigms of ideological and cultural criticism. Its goal is to provide a comprehensive, critical picture of the discipline in terms of differential formations and relations of power as well as of different traditions of reading. The course will encompass three major components. First, a general introduction to the history of the discipline from the 1970s through today, with a focus on the questions raised by ideological and cultural criticisms. Second, sustained analysis of various ideological approaches (feminist and materialist criticisms, ethnic-racial and queer criticisms, postcolonial criticism, disability and ecological criticism) as well as focused consideration of cultural criticism, problematics, trajectories, critiques, interdisciplinary conversations. Finally, a brief view at both the role and the future of biblical criticism.[3] Mr. Segovia