The Society of Biblical Literature has a fantastic online resource they've created with funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities called Bible Odyssey. Think of it as a reservoir of accessible and peer reviewed biblical studies resources created by scholars.
A student asked me the other day whether King's legacy is something to be given up since it can be used for contrary ends. My piece doesn't answer this with a clear answer. I do hope that it leaves readers asking that question. To me that question is a prior step to ruthlessly careful and self-conscious criticism.
I come to Othello through a twisted confluence of experiences that I now take as proof of this play's potential relevance to modern readers. Whenever I entertain the idea of reading Shakespeare, I feel the burden of attempting to experience something too meaningful for me to appreciate...and so I don't. But these mis-starts have served to make me well-versed in the meaning of pretense. And after years of study and avoidance, I am convinced that to understand the texts by, with, through, and around which we fashion our lives, we would do well to understand the pretext that always accompanies the phenomena of reading and being read.
This weekend, Dr. Richard Newton will be at the annual meetings of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society of Biblical Literature to share some of his work on pedagogy. Whether you're there physically or keeping up from afar, we'll bring you updates from the field here at Sowing the … Continue reading #AARSBL17: Skin in the Game–Racing the Stakes of Student-Scholarship
Curator's Note--I've struggled for weeks with how to conclude the Bible and Race in the USA series. People's shock at the malleability of truth and the temptation of exceptionalism has challenged me to re-situate the discussion. So before you is a personal reflection to explore why so few of our current events are actually textbook. … Continue reading The Bible and Race in the USA: What Went Without Saying
Sowing the Seed 