Fall 2024
Israel/Palestine in World Religions: Whose Promised Land?
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
The struggle over Israel/Palestine is not just another contest by competing nationalisms or an instance of geopolitical competition. It is also about control of sacred territory that involves local Jews, Muslims, and Christians as well as worldwide faith communities, each with their own interests at stake in a tangle of secular and theological claims.
S. Ilan Troen is Lopin Professor of Modern History, emeritus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, Stoll Family Professor in Israel Studies, emeritus at Brandeis University, USA, and founding director of the Israel Studies centers at both institutions.
Deuteronomy, Trauma, and Politics
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Moses’ farewell discourses in the book of Deuteronomy present a program for constituting Israel as a ‘nation’ in political terms and, at the same time, as the ‘people of God’. In this talk, Dr. Dominik Markl SJ, Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies at Innsbruck University, Austria, will reflect on how trauma theory can help us understand both the political and religious dimensions of Deuteronomy. He will also offer some reflections on how trauma, politics, and religion are still intertwined in our contemporary world.