Contemporary critical theory, which highlights the creative dimension of the reading process, is increasingly reorienting the study of the history of scriptural interpretation, situating it within the flux of literary and cultural movements at large. This international research group brings together scholars of Jewish, Christian and Muslim interpretation to conduct a close comparative analysis of shifting encounters with Scripture in three overlapping cultures. Drawing upon diverse yet complimentary perspectives, the participants in this group will investigate five fundamental subjects:

a. The critical role that interpretation played in the formation of Sacred Scripture;

b. Changing conceptions of the "plain sense" of Scripture;

c. The ways in which classical rhetoric and poetics informed scriptural interpretation;

d. Tensions created by the need to transplant Scripture into new linguistic media;

e. The ways in which the Bible has been reconfigured in literature, art and scholarship.

 

 

The goal of our research group is to examine the historical process by which common law has spread around the globe. English law and the legal systems that arose from these systems, primarily American law, have enjoyed immense success in conquering the world. Our group seeks to understand the factors assisting and inhibiting common law transplantation in the distant and more recent past. We will do so by bringing into sharp focus two specific historical examples of common legal law transplantation, to compare them to gain a better understanding of the process that we will examine. The two examples are the United States and Israel. Both countries provide instructive examples of common law transplantations, its successes and problems.