At the conference last week, there were many different papers that had come from a seminar on the Apostle Paul. They all worked to reinterpret Paul's work for the modern age, focusing on how he applies to concepts like islamophobia and environmentalism. He is an interesting figure for sure, first bashing Christianity as a Jew, then converting and bashing Judaism. Current scholarship is working on reinterpreting him, and this is a phenomena that we also encountered in our study of the Torah and the role of women in
Half the Kingdom. I think this is a hugely worthwhile action- we must update and adapt our understandings of these texts to keep them relevant and informative in the framework of our modern world. This occurs in Islam as well: As we saw with the Imam last week, Qur'an interpretation changes to add inclusivity over time as well. The discussion of the gender fluidity was a fantastic example of thought changing and adapting over time. We are constantly reframing context as we gain more information, forgetting that which needs to be left in the past to move forward.
I wonder where alternate texts come into this conversation. We are editing historical narratives, but what happens if we look for alternate narratives based off the work that history has forgotten? Or what happens if we acknowledge all the other influences that the past has had. For example, so much of popular understanding of Christianity comes from
Paradise Lost, but no one addresses this.
We discussed narratives at the conference, and it has clearly got me thinking about the narratives we engage with in class.
