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Meeting Program Units

2018 Annual Meeting

Denver, CO

Meeting Begins11/17/2018
Meeting Ends11/21/2018

Call for Papers Opens: 12/18/2017
Call for Papers Closes: 3/6/2018

Requirements for Participation

Reading, Theory, and the Bible


Program Unit Type: Section
Accepting Papers? Yes

Call For Papers: Reading, Theory and the Bible will sponsor two themed sessions this year. The first is a call for papers on the theme of "Blasphemy." The second is a review of the Bible and the work and influence of Margaret Atwood. Despite the high public visibility of ‘blasphemy’, there is a lack of careful and nuanced work on blasphemy in the Bible and post-biblical traditions. Too often scholars working on later periods assume that once-upon-a-biblical-time, blasphemy was ‘a simple and well-defined act’. We invite close-readings of biblical texts that have been or may be related to blasphemy; theorisations of what ‘blasphemy’ and loosely related verbs mean in different biblical and post-biblical traditions (what does it mean that the root blasphemeo can be used of insults against people, as well as God, for example?); and studies of ‘blasphemous’ texts, artworks and events that have played with biblical themes and tropes. Comparative studies between the Bible and Qur’an are also welcome. Our second session is on the theme of "Margaret Atwood and the Bible." We invite papers that engage all aspects of Atwood’s work, including fiction, poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and cinematic and television adaptations, as it relates to the Bible (Hebrew Bible, New Testament, noncanonical texts). More than simply reception history, we seek contributions that engage Atwood’s work in playful, provocative, and theoretically innovative ways. Reading, Theory and the Bible sponsors innovative, experimental work on Bible (Bible being interpreted in the broadest sense to include all commentaries and intertexts). We exist to accommodate work that pushes the boundaries of scholarship, and we work on the assumption that questions of provenance, philology, and history are amply accommodated by other groups in the SBL. We also encourage innovative presentation.

Program Unit Chairs

Jay Twomey
Robert Paul Seesengood

Propose a Paper for this Program Unit

If you are a SBL member, you must login before you can propose a paper for this or any other session. Please login by entering your SBL member number on the left in the Login box.

For all other persons wanting to propose a paper, you must communicate directly with the chair of the program unit to which you want to propose. Chairs have the responsibility to make waiver requests, and their email addresses are available above. SBL provides membership and meeting registration waivers only for scholars who are outside the disciplines covered by the SBL program, specifically most aspects of archaeological, biblical, religious, and theological studies.

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