REL 351 - Bible and Ethnicity: Deuteronomy and Mestizaje

This course focuses on a key text of the Hebrew Bible: the book of Deuteronomy-a combination of narrative, poetic, and legal traditions. We will consider the literary and historical features of this text in light of the ways that Deuteronomy advocates for a particular ethnic worldview in the dispossessed, marginalized communities of ancient Israel. Furthermore, we will investigate its role in forming more recent ethno-religious communities. To aid our inquiry into ancient ethnicity, we will explore the contemporary contours of the study of ethnicity as well as Latinx theorization of racial/ethnic intermixture (mestizaje). We will ask, “What is the effect of Deuteronomy on the ethnic formation of its various communities of reception?” We will find that the text is deployed and redeployed in multiple ways through time, highlighting the nature of the Hebrew Bible as a part of a broader field of traditions that come to shape ethno-religious communities.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): REL 152
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): CRES 321
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.