Covenant in Ancient Judaism, Christianity and Islam

In the Hebrew Bible, covenants serve to create communal identity. This identity is reinforced in rabbinic literature, and extended and emended in Christian and Muslim scriptures. This lecture will draw attention to strategies articulated in Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts that shed light on how competing claims to the covenant are addressed.  It will focus on the New Testament and the Qur’an, as well as explore extra-canonical Jewish texts, in particular rabbinic midrashim that attest to a need to address issues that arise from claims to the biblical Abrahamic covenant in late antiquity.

Carol Bakhos is a Professor of Jewish Studies and the Study of Religion at the University of California, Los Angeles. She holds a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Harvard and a doctorate in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary, in New York City. Professor in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures since 2002, Bakhos serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, and Chair of the undergraduate Interdepartmental Program in the Study of Religion. Her most recent monograph The Family of Abraham: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Interpretations (Harvard University Press, 2014) was recently translated into Turkish. Her other works include Ishmael on the Border: Rabbinic Portrayals of the First Arab (SUNY, 2006), winner of a Koret Foundation Award, and several edited volumes. This past summer, she received an NEH Summer-Institute grant for “Religious Landscapes of Los Angeles: Teaching and Exploring Religious Diversity Through Civic Engagement.” Bakhos is currently the co-editor of the AJS Review journal.

 Light refreshments will be served. For more information and also to RSVP, contact dakirsch@umd.edu

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