Course Description
The aims of the seminar are learning about the historical and social context of temples and temple practices in the ancient Near East; studying the Hebrew Bible’s various perspectives on images; engaging texts in original languages (esp. Hebrew and Greek); learning about ritual and theological and anthropological dimensions of divine image.
Bibliography
WALLS, NEAL, ed. Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East Boston: American School of Oriental Research, 2005.
TOORN, KARELVAN DER, ed. The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism, and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East Leuven: Peeters, 1997.
METTINGER, TRYGGVE. No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1995.
KEEL, OTHMAR, and CHRISTOPH UEHLINGER. Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
DARBY, ERIN D., and IZAAK J. DE HULSTER, eds. Iron Age Terracotta Figurines From the Southern Levant in Context Leiden: Brill, 2021.