ENGL 353 | The Bible as Literature

This course studies the Christian Bible using the interpretive framework of literary studies. What kinds of knowledge, insight, and debates are produced when this collection of books -- one that has inspired countless other artistic and cultural expressions over the centuries -- is read as literature? Approaching the Bible in this way is to give special attention to questions about its authorship, historical contexts, source materials, and genres, as well as to the particular kinds of images, narratives, and motifs that weave in and out of its passages. Composed and compiled at various times over a millennium in ancient Israel and beyond, the Bible is, among other things, a richly diverse record of humans making sense of their world, purpose, and experiences in light of a deeply relational God who nonetheless transcends human comprehension. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that these authors so often turned to poetic and other literary devices as a way to articulate the mysterious connection between the earthly and the heavenly, time and eternity, suffering and salvation, justice and mercy. Students will consider how the Bible's many stories, chronicles, teachings, prophecies, and apocalypses might have spoken to their original audiences, and how they have been interpreted since, including by modern scholars of religion, history, and literature.