{"title":"On the Uses of Biblical Poetics: Protestant Hermeneutics and American Jewish Self-Fashioning","authors":"Julian Levinson","doi":"10.2979/ptx.2023.a899253","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article shows how new trends in Protestant biblical hermeneutics in nineteenth-century America helped to raise the cultural status of modern-day Jews, while inspiring bold new directions in American Jewish literary culture. The interpretive framework under discussion emerged in the work of Bishop Robert Lowth and Johann Gottfried Herder, whose studies of biblical poetry became highly influential in the United States when they were both published at the height of the Second Great Awakening. By reconceptualizing biblical poetry (especially in the works of the biblical prophets) as sublime art, their approach created the possibility for valorizing the biblical tradition for its aesthetic power alongside its religious teachings. Since Jews were commonly seen as continuous with biblical Israel, this approach meant that Jews could be seen as heirs to a glorious literary tradition, a point that American Jewish poets, such as Emma Lazarus, emphasized when they launched their own poetic experiments modeled on the biblical prophets.","PeriodicalId":43444,"journal":{"name":"PROOFTEXTS-A JOURNAL OF JEWISH LITERARY HISTORY","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"PROOFTEXTS-A JOURNAL OF JEWISH LITERARY HISTORY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2979/ptx.2023.a899253","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract: This article shows how new trends in Protestant biblical hermeneutics in nineteenth-century America helped to raise the cultural status of modern-day Jews, while inspiring bold new directions in American Jewish literary culture. The interpretive framework under discussion emerged in the work of Bishop Robert Lowth and Johann Gottfried Herder, whose studies of biblical poetry became highly influential in the United States when they were both published at the height of the Second Great Awakening. By reconceptualizing biblical poetry (especially in the works of the biblical prophets) as sublime art, their approach created the possibility for valorizing the biblical tradition for its aesthetic power alongside its religious teachings. Since Jews were commonly seen as continuous with biblical Israel, this approach meant that Jews could be seen as heirs to a glorious literary tradition, a point that American Jewish poets, such as Emma Lazarus, emphasized when they launched their own poetic experiments modeled on the biblical prophets.
期刊介绍:
For sixteen years, Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History has brought to the study of Jewish literature, in its many guises and periods, new methods of study and a new wholeness of approach. A unique exchange has taken place between Israeli and American scholars, as more work from Israelis has appeared in the journal. Prooftexts" thematic issues have made important contributions to the field.