BIBL4931HC: Genesis & Ethics - Fall 2021

Abstract

This course will provide a comprehensive survey of and meditation on the book of Genesis, specifically through the lens of ethics. We will begin with some introductory material concerning the genre of Genesis and narrative, more broadly, as a mode of ethical instruction. And then we will turn to the a section by section analysis of the text’s structure, themes, characters, and theologies, as seen through the readings of major exegetes, from the sages to the commentators of today—with a central focus on the claims of Leon Kass’s The Beginning of Wisdom. From the dawn of life to the death of the Egyptian viceroy, we will assess the ethics embedded in the text and the tales that have shaped the Jewish imagination for millennia.