I believe that Karl Hagen has the right idea about historicising
interpretation. I just had a grand experience as t.a. for David Williams here
at McGill in his course "The Bible and Literature" which explored both
Biblical and "extra-Biblical" literature, everything from Donne to Chaucer to
Shirley Jackson and beyond. We had none of these sorst of srguments, perhaps
because David is such a consummate professional and tells the class early on
that we will be dealing with the Bible as its writers/believers saw it,
inclusing both the judaic and Christian tradition. I had students give
presentations on everything from chaos theory and Biblical number symbolisdm
to a performance of sections of Mendelssohn's "Elijah" with nary a fight. Is
this phenomenon possibly more American than international? Certainly from a
foreigner's perspective the United States seems rife with bitter religious
controversy and is decidedly hegemonic in its advocacy of a Christian
absolutism?? Regards, Terry
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