Exodus in America: Black Christians and White Jews in Interreligious Dialogue

3 credits · Divinity School

This interreligious seminar will examine the central role the Exodus narrative and motif have played in the religious and identity formation of both black Christians and white Jews in the United States. The examination will be guided by an interdisciplinary framework: Scriptural Interpretation and Witness; Cultural Traditions; Moral Reasoning; and Experiences of Oppression. For each component of this framework, the appropriation, application, and interpretation of the Exodus experience for both communities will be described, compared, and contrasted. The interdisciplinary approaches of Black Church studies and Jewish studies will serve as the methodological basis for these comparisons and contrasts, with special attention given to their subsidiary disciplines of Biblical studies and religious ethics. [3] Ms. Floyd-Thomas