Individual Presentations day 2

(my notes grew less descriptive as we went on)

Tara - The role of women esp. women in Genesis and The Slave. Sara is infertile and gives her slave Hagar to Abraham, Rebecca favors her son Jacob over Essau and Tamar dresses as a prostitute. All of these women are portrayed as whores, but everything they did was for their children. In The Slave, Jacob blames Wanda for his yearnings; Wanda becomes Sara - subserviant and mute.

Erica - David is heroic and human. He has the capacity for love, is enslaved by passion and falls for an unavailable woman. Psalm 51 (Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon) David's prayer "Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you."

Taylor - Females in the Bible - Tamar vs. Guinevere (Victorian interpretation). Victorians followed a strict interpretation of the Bible and there's the dichotomy of angel and whore for Guinevere. Taylor referenced William Morris' Defense of Guinevere

Dana - She had a Catholic schools upbringing but an agnostic home life. She discussed what she had learned from this class and how harmful a literal translation of the Bible can be. Dana passed around 2 art pieces.

Alex - The Slave and the story of Israel - mirroring story over and over again. Jephtha sacrificing his daughter in Judges parallels the sacrifices of Israel.

Marlow - 666 (the mark of the beast) equals Caesar and Nero - the mark wasn't of the coming beast, it was already there because C&N were both horrifically cruel, violent leaders. Marlow's paper compares the Book of Revelation to Invisible Man

Emily - Revelation and Invisible Man - why do we study the Bible?

Jennifer - God's power - the writer J shows God using power against his subjects and then Jennifer played a CD - "Our God is an Awesome God"
song

Judson - Some things resist the erosion of translation. The Slave is an attack on what you thought was Judaism (parable).

Brendan - went to Catholic schools but had liberal parents. Bloom's description of Yahweh engrossed him, as did the passion and true literature of the Bible.

Michael - Science and religion aren't polar opposites (see his blog for a discussion on this). Newton's apple on the head is Biblical. People try to conceptualize their place in the world and we need these stories.