Overlooking the Obvious: Concealed Biblical Narratives
Agatha Christie’s detective hero Hercule Poirot described to Captain Hastings what he considered to be an unforgivable investigative error — “overlooking the obvious.” This seminar will feature a close reading of iconic biblical narratives and will focus on the rich interpretative inner life of the enigmatic portrayals of the Binding of Isaac, the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, and their Near Eastern antecedents, historical Moses, the Temple cult, the reluctant prophet Jonah, among others.
Pearce, Stephen
Stephen S. Pearce, DD, PhD, the Emeritus Senior Rabbi of Congregation Emanu‐El, served the congregation from 1993‐2013 and in 2018 was named the Taube Scholar endowed by the Taube Philanthropies. Ordained at the Hebrew Union College‐Jewish Institute of Religion, he earned his doctorate in counselor psychology at St. John’s University and has served on the faculty of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, and summer writing workshops at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.