Heilsgeschichte

This fall was quite apocalyptic for me. No, I did not predict the end of the world, nor did I experience an otherworldly journey. I did, however, immerse myself in the ancient literary genre called apocalypse, which resulted in many late evenings confronted by many-headed beasts and ascents into heaven. Okay, it was not quite that dramatic, but two courses on apocalyptic literature at U. Chicago this fall were epic. The first course that I will write about is required of all first-year M.A. and M.Div. students, called “Introduction to the Study of Religion.” The course is designed to introduce students to the methodologies of each department in the Divinity School by focusing on one text—in our case, Ibn Tufayl’s famous Islamic novel Hayy Ibn Yaqtan. The structure of the course was a creative collaboration of professors from each department in the Divinity School (10 departments in total), each of whom lectured on the book from the angle of their own discipline, e.g., history of religions, history of Judaism, theology, biblical studies, etc.

At first I dreaded taking this course, since our primary text was outside my area of interest. To my surprise, Hayy Ibn Yaqtan—a story about an autodidactic child who grows up on a secluded island—was the inspiration for some of Kant’s philosophy and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Since the story includes motifs of Jewish ascent literature (that is, a story with a character who ascends to heaven), we spent some time in the area of Jewish, Christian and Islamic apocalypses. A lecture by the prodigious Jewish scholar, Michael Fishbane, was by far the most exciting, during which he diachronically unpacked 1500 years of Jewish ascent traditions beginning with Moses’ ascent up Mt. Sinai, followed by a detailed discussion of the origins of apocalypses through the Enoch traditions and the Hekhalot literature. The best part of the class is that I was able to manipulate all three paper assignments to write on topics related to the New Testament as follows: (1) Paul’s ascent to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12 and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul; (2) the role of asceticism in apocalypses; and (3) the qualities and function of John's ascent in the Book of Revelation. The opportunity to study with people from starkly variegated religious and philosophical backgrounds provided a stimulating environment for discussions. Despite my reservations, I strongly encourage U. Chicago to continue this course for first year students.

This entry was posted on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 13:49

• drew.strait's blog
• Add new comment