REL 309
Scriptures and Race
Last Offered Fall 2012
Division II
This course is not offered in the current catalog

What are “scriptures,” and what is “race”? How and why did these two terms come to have any relationship to each other? How and why do peoples engage “scriptures”? In what ways have “scriptures” informed how peoples imagine themselves and others? How did “scriptures” and “race” inform each other in modern colonialisms and imperialisms? In this course, we will examine the ways that “scriptures” have been employed in order to understand and develop notions of “race,” and we will examine how ideas about “race” have informed the concept of “scriptures” as well as practices of scriptural interpretation. While this course will focus on the relationships between constructions of “race” in the post-1492 American world and “Christian scriptures,” we will also consider a few other historical moments and places where “race” is engaged, as well as other texts and practices identified with “scriptures.”