Program for the Study of Religion Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture on Religion and Contemporary Culture "Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire"

• Event Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008
• Time: 8:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Talk

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity, Harvard University

Explore both how the power of empire has shaped and affected Christian Scriptures and how it continues to shape our cultural and religious ethos today. Because Christian Scriptures and interpretations were formulated in the context of Roman imperial power, they lend themselves to being used in the service of empire, colonialist expansion, and heterosexist discrimination. Therefore, they are determined by this rhetorical political imperial context. Through the process of reading Scripture, we internalize the ethos of empire: violence, exclusion, and submission to God, the almighty King and Christ the Lord, if we do not critically become conscious of the language of empire inscribed in it. In order to avoid such internalizations of the ethos of empire, it is necessary to adopt an understanding of Scripture that will allow us to deal critically with the biblical ethos of empire rather than repeating and perpetuating it.

Museum visitors are reminded that food and drinks are not allowed in the Museum. Backpacks and other large items brought to the Museum will have to be stored; there is limited locker storage space available for these items.