Join leading scholars, Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth) and Terrence L. Johnson (Harvard) to discuss the theme of “Reading for Liberation: The Bible in Black and Jewish Political Thought” in this David Blitzer Lecture:

Professor Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, will open with “Living in Sadistic Times: The Bible, Modernity, and the Quest for Hope.” The rise of mass death, destruction, and cruelty marks the modern period less as Kant’s vaunted era of rationalism and the universal human and far more as an era of the Marquis de Sade’s depiction of sadism. Sadism, as distinct from aggression, has been manifested in modernity in collusion with the rise of racism, resulting in terrible destruction, including for religion. What hope can we find in the Bible’s promise of redemption and its challenge for religious faith?

Professor Terrence L. Johnson , Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies at Harvard University, will offer “We are Not Saved: Social Death, Scripture, and ‘Scripturalizing’ the Race.” His lecture will consider both the limits and opportunities of engaging Scripture as a talking book concept, a dialogical exchange between the reader and text, and community and text. Afropessimism raises several questions about the emancipatory ends of the talking book and relevancy for the current political moment.

Each scholar will offer a brief lecture, then turn to conversation and open Q & A. All are welcome to the 4:45pm opening reception and 5:30pm lecture in Baird 250 on UB’s North Campus.

For more information, visit arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/jewish-thought/lecture-series.

EVENT SPONSORS: Department of Jewish Thought, the Department of Africana and American Studies and the Office of Inclusive Excellence