Go
 

  Get this audio book:





The Bible and the Roots of Western Literature by Adam Potkay

The Bible and the Roots of Western Literature

by Adam Potkay


Title Details

Author
Publisher
 
Audio Original
Running Time
7 Hrs.
User Rating
  1.0  Stars Based on 1 rating

Description

The goal of this audio course is to provide listeners with a literary and historical overview of the Bible, from its opening in Genesis to its ending in the Book of Revelation, and also with a sense of some of the ways in which the Bible has influenced the literary traditions of the West. We’ll be exploring key scenes, stories, forms, and books of the Bible through the methods of literary and cultural analysis. We’ll be asking questions such as: what, in literary terms, might a Biblical story mean? How does its form and style contribute to its meaning? How has the story been read by other readers, from influential theologians of the past (such as St. Augustine and John Calvin) to literary critics of our own day? Finally, in what ways has the story had an impact on the literature, as well as the larger cultural life, of Europe and America? We pay particular attention to the ways in which the Bible has influenced the canon of English and American literature, including Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, and Robert Frost.

Adam Potkay holds degrees from Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and Rutgers, where he received his Ph.D. He is currently Professor of English at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he has taught since 1990. An internationally renowned scholar of eighteenth-century literature, Professor Potkay is also the recipient of the William and Mary Alumni Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Lecture 1 Authorship and Style in the Torah

Lecture 2 Cain and Abel in Story, Theology and Literary History

Lecture 3 Icons and Iconoclasm: From Moses to Milton

Lecture 4 The Story of King David, or the Varieties of Love

Lecture 5 The Song of Solomon: The Poetry of Sacred and Profane Love

Lecture 6 Psalms: The Poetry of Praise and Supplication

Lecture 7 Proverbs: The Way to Wisdom

Lecture 8 The Book of Job: The Problem of Evil and the Aesthetics of the Sublime

Lecture 9 Ecclesiastes and the Questioning of Wisdom

Lecture 10 Isaiah and Prophecy

Lecture 11 Typology: The Life of Christ as Fulfillment of the Old Testament

Lecture 12 Parables: The Form of Jesus' Teaching

Lecture 13 Paul: The Letter and the Spirit of the Law

Lecture 14 The Book of Revelation and the Symmetry of the Christian Bible


People Who Liked The Bible and the Roots of Western Literature Also Liked These Titles:
  What If? Part 2
by Geoffrey Parker

  The Siege of Vienna
by John Stoye