SACRED TEXTS HOW TO
"Readers will find in this book suggestions of how to make sense in the face of violent religious texts and to craft for themselves ways of bringing healing to themselves, and to the victimized so they can have a voice." For example, I teach at a Jewish seminary that educates and trains rabbis and that offers undergraduate and graduate programs." COLLAPSE Though some may be beginning their paths to become scholars of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Talmud, or the Qur’an, most of our students are not being trained for the academy. I contend that we, as scholars of sacred texts, regardless of our own religious orientations, have an added responsibility to consider the effect that texts that portray or even condone sexual violence have on our students. Yet, because the material I teach is considered by most of my students to be sacred, and many are redefining their relationship to the material, I assume the Bible’s rape texts will evoke a deeply personal response, and I feel responsible for guiding them emotionally through the experience of studying these texts. Of course students will encounter rape scenes in secular literature as well, and I do not think it is always necessary to prepare students before they encounter difficult or upsetting material. Students have expressed appreciation for my introduction, often taking the opportunity to talk with me further about their personal experiences and reactions. Before teaching a unit on rape texts in the Hebrew Bible, I introduce the topic a week in advance and admit that this may be a personally difficult, religiously challenging, but important topic for students to discuss. We owe it to our students at least to acknowledge if not to consider how they may be experiencing our “academic” discussion of these disturbing texts in fact, it would be irresponsible not to.
1 The recent attention to rape on college campuses makes this even clearer. If the statistics are right that about one in seven women have been sexually violated, those of us who are academics are more than likely teaching students who have directly experienced sexual violence. "Just as sexual violence is prevalent in ancient sacred texts, sexual violence is prevalent in contemporary society.
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