Contextual Interpretation of the Bible (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and New Testament)

Call For Papers: This Seminar underlines the significance of contextual interpretation and its contribution to biblical studies. We invite contributions to 4 sessions (proposed and solicited papers): (1). God, Bible and Empire: Interpretations and counter interpretations. We are particularly interested in the critical examination of approaches in support of imperial rule as it applies to a specific biblical character or narrative, and the contextual counter readings/subversions of the same character or narrative by “ordinary” readers on the margins. (2) Reading the Bible's secondary characters from the margins. We invite papers that propose critical and creative readings of a biblical text about a minoritized (“number 2”) biblical character (e.g., Idris/Enoch, Zuleikha, Orpah, Gershom, Judas, plants, animals, et al.). We will warmly consider proposals that are also queer, cross-scriptural and/or dip into the flows of orality. (3) Children's Bibles: Interpreting the Bible in Illustration. In anticipation of a volume of Texts@Contexts dedicated to this topic, the unit will invite papers on Bible interpretation in the illustration of biblcal scenes in this medium. This session/s invite contributions that explore how illustrators (adults and sometimes children) have interpreted a particular biblical character, narrative or book. Acknowledgment of the interplay between visual and textual interpretation is strongly encouraged. (4). We invite contributions to an open session on the interpretation of a biblical text from within a reader's explicitly articulated context, personal as well as communal, while firmly anchored in clear methodology.

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