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Babel: Political Rhetoric of a Confused Legacy

Elizabeth Williams — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 18:46:32 +0000

Babel: Political Rhetoric of a Confused Legacy Elizabeth Williams Tue, 06/20/2023 - 12:46

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In Babel: Political Rhetoric of a Confused Legacy, Samuel L. Boyd offers a new reading of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. Using recent insights on the rhetoric of Neo-Assyrian politics and its ideology of governance as well as advances in biblical studies, Boyd shows how the Tower of Babel was not originally about a tower, Babylon, or the advent of multilingualism, at least in the earliest phases of the history and literary context of the story. Rather, the narrative was a critique against the Assyrian empire using themes of human overreach found in many places in Genesis 1-11.

Boyd clarifies how idioms of Assyrian governance could have found their way into the biblical text, and how the Hebrew of Genesis 11:1-9 itself leads to a different translation of the passage than found in versions of the Bible, one that does not involve language. This new reading sheds light on how the story became about language. Boyd argues that this new understanding of Babel also illuminates aspects of the call of Abram when the Tower of Babel is interpreted as a story about something other than the origin of multilingualism. Finally, he frames the historical-critical research on the biblical passage and its reception in ancient Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sources with the uses of the Tower of Babel in modern politics of language and nationalism. He demonstrates how and why Genesis 11:1-9 has become so useful, in often detrimental ways, to the modern nation-state. Boyd explores this intellectual history of the passage into current events in the twenty-first century and offers perspectives on how a new reading of the Tower of Babel can speak to the current cultural and political moment and offer correctives on the uses and abuses of the Bible in the public sphere.

Publisher Website

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Sam is a scholar of biblical texts and the ancient Near East. He researches the Bible through various critical methods and in light of wider historical contexts to understand both the production of these documents as well as their history of interpretation. His particular areas of research include the development of the Pentateuch (or first five books of the Hebrew Bible), legal hermeneutics in the ancient Near East, language ideology in the ancient world, and ritual theory applied to biblical texts. He also has interests in archaeology, Semitic philology and linguistics, and Late Antiquity (Rabbinic biblical interpretation, Ethiopic Christianity, and the advent of Islam).

Podcast with Dr.Boyd discussing his new book

Praise for Babel: Political Rhetoric of a Confused Legacy

"Samuel Boyd's refreshing new study of the Tower of Babel, one of the literary jewels of the Bible, is astonishing in its scope and originality. It is a tour de force: a demonstration of how much interpretive novelty may still be achieved when all of a dynamic scholar's many areas of expertise are brought to bear on even the most familiar of texts." --Joel Baden, Yale Divinity School

"It's rare that a scholar can navigate so deftly from the ancient settings of a biblical text's composition through the many stages of its reception, including our contemporary moment. But that is exactly what Samuel Boyd does in this absorbing and readable account of the Tower of Babel story. Moving among language, religion, politics, art, popular culture, and more, Babel accomplishes precisely what it intends: to explain the enduring influence of a biblical story and what that influence reveals about its many interpreters. This is a book for anyone interested in the Bible and its continued relevance." --Jeffrey Stackert, University of Chicago Divinity School

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The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi‘i Islamic Tradition

Elizabeth Williams — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 19:22:58 +0000

The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi‘i Islamic Tradition Elizabeth Williams Thu, 06/15/2023 - 13:22

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Against the background of long-standing narratives in which Twelver Shi'ism is viewed as fundamentally authoritarian, The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi'i Islamic Tradition builds upon recent scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies, Anthropology, and History to argue that Twelver Shi'ism is better understood as a discursive tradition. At a conceptual level, this solves the basic problem of how to integrate the extraordinary diversity of Twelver Shi'ism across time and space into a single historical category without engaging in a normative assessment of its underlying essence. Furthermore, in light of this conception of tradition, the School of Hillah stands out as a seminal period in the archive of Twelver Shi'ism, though it has seldom been recognized as such in European-language scholarship. Insofar as it gave birth to a conversation that would prove capable of encompassing the dynamism of Twelver Shi'ism, the School of Hillah should be considered the formative period of Twelver Shi'i tradition. Moreover, when the tradition is conceptualized in this manner, it is a bulwark against the very authoritarianism by which Twelver Shi'ism has been characterized for so long.

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Aun Hasan Ali is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from McGill University. His research revolves around Shi'i intellectual history, especially law and legal theory.

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The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta’s Panentheism and New Materialism

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 19:35:52 +0000

The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta’s Panentheism and New Materialism Elizabeth Williams Mon, 02/06/2023 - 12:35

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In the early 11th century, the Kashmiri philosopher Abhinavagupta proposed panentheism-seeing the divine as both immanent in the world and at the same time as transcendent--as a way to reclaim the material world as something real, something solid. His theology understood the world itself, with its manifold inhabitants--from gods to humans to insects down to the merest rock-as part of the unfolding of a single conscious reality, Siva. This conscious singularity-the word "god" here does not quite do it justice--with its capacity to choose and will, pervades all through, top to bottom; as Abhinavagupta writes, "even down to a worm -- when they do their own deeds, that which is to be done first stirs in the heart." His panentheism proposed an answer to a familiar conundrum, one we still grapple with today: Consciousness is so unlike matter. How does consciousness actually connect to the materiality of our world? To put this in more familar twenty-first-century terms, how does mind connect to body?

These questions drive Loriliai Biernacki's The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta's Panentheism and New Materialism. Biernacki draws on Abhinavagupta's thought--and particularly his yet-untranslated, philosophical magnum opus, the Isvara Pratyabhijña Vivrti Vimarsini--to think through contemporary issues such as the looming prospect of machine AI, ideas about information, and our ecological crises. She argues that Abhinavagupta's panentheism can help us understand our current world and can contribute to a New Materialist re-envisioning of the relationship that humans have with matter.

Winner, American Academy of Religion 2024 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Constructive-Reflective Studies.

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Loriliai Biernacki is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research interests include Hinduism, gender, New Materialism, and the interface between religion and science. Her first book, Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex and Speech in Tantra (2007) won the Kayden Award in 2008. She is co-editor of God's Body: Panentheism across the World's Religious Traditions (2013).

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The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:01:58 +0000

The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/02/2022 - 13:01

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The Sea in the Middle presents an original and revisionist narrative of the development of the medieval west from late antiquity to the dawn of modernity. This textbook is uniquely centered on the Mediterranean and emphasizes the role played by peoples and cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe in an age when Christians, Muslims, and Jews of various denominations engaged with each other in both conflict and collaboration.

Key features:

Fifteen-chapter structure to aid classroom use
Sections in each chapter that feature key artifacts relevant to chapter themes
Dynamic visuals, including 190 photos and 20 maps

The Sea in the Middle and its sourcebook companion, Texts from the Middle, pair together to provide a framework and materials that guide students through this complex but essential history--one that will appeal to the diverse student bodies of today.

Publisher Website

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Brian A. Catlos is Professor of Religious Studies at University of Colorado Boulder. He works on Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations in the premodern Mediterranean. His most recent book, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain, is available in eight languages and as an audiobook.

Professor Catlos was interviewed on the New Books Network, regarding his new text book and source anthology, The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 and Texts from the Middle: Documents from the Mediterranean World, 650-1650 on the New Books Network. Listen here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-sea-in-the-middle

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Language Contact, Colonial Administration, and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Israel

Elizabeth Williams — Fri, 07 May 2021 18:01:05 +0000

Language Contact, Colonial Administration, and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Israel Elizabeth Williams Fri, 05/07/2021 - 12:01

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In Language Contact, Colonial Administration, and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Israel, Boyd addresses a long-standing critical issue in biblical scholarship: how does the production of the Bible relate to its larger historical, linguistic, and cultural settings in the ancient Near East? Using theoretical advances in the study of language contact, he examines in detail the sociolinguistic landscape during the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Achaemenid periods. Boyd then places the language and literature of Ezekiel and Isaiah in this sociolinguistic landscape. Language Contact, Colonial Administration, and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Israel offers the first book-length incorporation of language contact theory with data from the Bible. As a result, it allows for a reexamination of the nature of contact between biblical authors and a series of Mesopotamian empires beginning with Assyria.

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Inseparable Across Lifetimes

Elizabeth Williams — Fri, 07 May 2021 16:41:18 +0000

Inseparable Across Lifetimes Elizabeth Williams Fri, 05/07/2021 - 10:41

Inseparable across Lifetimes
The Lives and Love Letters of the Tibetan Visionaries Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo
By Namtrul Jigme Phuntsok
By Khandro Tare Lhamo
Translated by Holly Gayley

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An inspiring and intimate tale set against the turmoil of recent Tibetan history, Inseparable across Lifetimes offers for the first time the translations of love letters between two modern Buddhist visionaries. The letters are poetic, affectionate, and prophetic, articulating a hopeful vision of renewal that drew on their past lives together and led to their twenty-year partnership. This couple played a significant role in restoring Buddhism in the region of Golok once China’s revolutionary fervor gave way to reform. Holly Gayley, who was given their correspondence by Namtrul Rinpoche himself, has translated their lives and letters in order to share their remarkable story with the world.

Winner of a 2021 Kayden Translation Award.

Publisher Website

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Holly Gayley, Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies, is a scholar and translator of contemporary Buddhist literature in Tibet. She is author of Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, co-editor of A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rime Masters of Tibet, and translator of Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo.

Praise:

"An instant classic, Gayley’s translations of contemporary love letters between a Tibetan visionary couple are luminous. The couple’s spiritual courtship animates a relationship that bridges the traditional and modern, transcendent and mundane. This is an inspiring page-turner that shows mutually transformative love is really possible." —Judith Simmer-Brown, author of Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism

"Inseparable across Lifetimes tells the amazing personal stories of two Buddhist masters in twentieth-century Tibet, and their love letters are skillfully translated here into soaring yet intimate English. Few publications record this crucial time period after the cultural devastation of Tibet, and fewer still offer such visionary hope for some kind of transformation." —Sarah Harding, author of Niguma, Lady of Illusion

"In a love relationship that was not just based on ordinary passions, but rather the union of incisive knowledge and skillful means, Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo came to know the pure essence of wisdom exaltation as the sacred union of male and female. They used this unobstructed power to work for the welfare of others through their enlightened deeds. I am grateful to Holly Gayley for bringing their exemplary life stories and songs of profound union into the English language so that readers can glimpse the best of our Tibetan Vajrayana tradition." —Lama Chonam, teacher and translator, Light of Berotsana Translation Group

"There is a decided feeling of closeness, care, and devotion in this wondrous tale—a taste of bliss." —Buddhadharma: The Practitioner‘s Quarterly

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Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Buddhism for the Twenty-First Century

Elizabeth Williams — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:39:19 +0000

Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Buddhism for the Twenty-First Century Elizabeth Williams Tue, 04/06/2021 - 13:39

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Voices from Larung Gar is the first collection of talks and writings by the leading voices of Larung Gar, the largest Buddhist institution on the Tibetan plateau. The book offers a compelling vision for Buddhism in the twenty-first century by some of the most erudite, creative, and influential Tibetan Buddhist luminaries today. In everyday language, these leaders delve into an array of contemporary issues, including science, ethics, gender equity, and animal welfare.

This collection features contributions from a range of prominent figures who are forging dynamic, modern paths forward for an ancient tradition. Included are the internationally renowned Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, founder of Larung Gar, his distinguished successors Khenpos Sodargye and Tsultrim Lodro, and erudite nuns holding the scholarly title Khenmo, who are becoming known for their impressive publishing projects. Larung Gar is thus one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most vital communities, actively balancing cultural preservation and innovation.

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Kingdoms of Faith A New History of Islamic Spain

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 14 May 2018 16:43:54 +0000

Kingdoms of Faith A New History of Islamic Spain Elizabeth Williams Mon, 05/14/2018 - 10:43

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A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain spanning the millennium between the founding of Islam in the seventh century and the final expulsion of Spain’s Muslims in the seventeenth

In Kingdoms of Faith, award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos rewrites the history of Islamic Spain from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendor of al-Andalus, while offering an authoritative new interpretation of the forces that shaped it.

Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain as a paradise of enlightened tolerance or the site where civilizations clashed. Catlos taps a wide array of primary sources to paint a more complex portrait, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilization that transformed the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and their coreligionists. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause — a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time.

Publisher Website

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Brian A. Catlos is a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His books have won numerous awards, including the American Historical Association’s Premio del Rey Award and John E. Fagg Prize. Catlos lives in Boulder, Colorado, and Barcelona, Spain.

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Love Letters from Golok

Elizabeth Williams — Sun, 07 May 2017 16:53:59 +0000

Love Letters from Golok Elizabeth Williams Sun, 05/07/2017 - 10:53

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Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tāre Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. In fifty-six letters exchanged from 1978 to 1980, Tāre Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche envisioned a shared destiny to "heal the damage" done to Buddhism during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation in a twenty-year religious career that informs issues of gender and agency in Buddhism, cultural preservation among Tibetan communities, and alternative histories for minorities in China.

The correspondence between Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche is the first collection of "love letters" to come to light in Tibetan literature. Blending tantric imagery with poetic and folk song styles, their letters have a fresh vernacular tone comparable to the love songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama, but with an eastern Tibetan flavor. Gayley reads these letters against hagiographic writings about the couple, supplemented by field research, to illuminate representational strategies that serve to narrate cultural trauma in a redemptive key, quite unlike Chinese scar literature or the testimonials of exile Tibetans. With special attention to Tare Lhamo's role as a tantric heroine and her hagiographic fusion with Namtrul Rinpoche, Gayley vividly shows how Buddhist masters have adapted Tibetan literary genres to share private intimacies and address contemporary social concerns.

Publisher Website

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Holly Gayley is assistant professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is coeditor of A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Great Rimé Masters of Tibet (2017) and author of articles published in History of Religions, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Contemporary Buddhism, and Himalaya.

Praise:

"An extraordinary set of letters between a man and woman lie at the heart of this study of love, religious transcendence, and cultural trauma in post-Cultural Revolution Tibet. I know of no body of material that gives a more intricate picture of how Tibetan Tantric Buddhism could penetrate and transform worldly troubles and politics into the sublime aspirations of tantric vision. Gayley offers us an unparalleled view of twentieth-century Tibetan religion as it touched every aspect of human life. Plus an astonishing account of a female master whose romance with another master elevated them both into heroes for Eastern Tibet during most challenging times."
Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard University

"Holly Gayley has that rarest of gifts, a scholar's eye and a story-teller's ear. Her book is filled with nuance and insight about the power of Tibetan cultural narratives of gendered spiritual prowess and the navigation of coded relationships. Never merely theoretical, Gayley grounds every observation in dynamic detail and a story-line compelling as any novel."
Anne C. Klein, Rice University, cofounder of Dawn Mountain, author of Meeting the Great Bliss Queen, translator of Khetsun Sangpo's Strand of Jewels

"Gayley weaves together life writing, ethnography, and letters in an unprecedented fashion, and it pays off: her treatment of difficult primary sources — translated here for the first time — is inviting and engaging. Love Letters from Golok addresses issues of real and abiding concern in contemporary China."
Kurtis R. Schaeffer, University of Virginia

"This tale of love and healing should be read by anyone in the fields of Tibetan Studies, gender studies, and religious studies, and is accessible to undergraduates as well as scholars of religion."
Reading Religion

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Moses Mendelssohn's Living Script Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism

Elizabeth Williams — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 17:33:08 +0000

Moses Mendelssohn's Living Script Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism Elizabeth Williams Thu, 01/14/2016 - 10:33

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Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) is often described as the founder of modern Jewish thought and as a leading philosopher of the late Enlightenment. One of Mendelssohn's main concerns was how to conceive of the relationship between Judaism, philosophy, and the civic life of a modern state. Elias Sacks explores Mendelssohn's landmark account of Jewish practice—Judaism's "living script," to use his famous phrase—to present a broader reading of Mendelssohn's writings and extend inquiry into conversations about modernity and religion. By studying Mendelssohn's thought in these dimensions, Sacks suggests that he shows a deep concern with history. Sacks affords a view of a foundational moment in Jewish modernity and forwards new ways of thinking about ritual practice, the development of traditions, and the role of religion in society.

Publisher Website

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Elias Sacks is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Babel: Political Rhetoric of a Confused Legacy

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The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi‘i Islamic Tradition

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The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta’s Panentheism and New Materialism

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The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650

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Language Contact, Colonial Administration, and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Israel

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Inseparable Across Lifetimes

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Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Buddhism for the Twenty-First Century

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Kingdoms of Faith A New History of Islamic Spain

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Love Letters from Golok

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