What does it mean, and what should it mean to be human?

In this collection of essays, scholars place the philosophies and theories of animal studies and posthumanism into conversation with biblical studies. Authors cross and disrupt boundaries and categories through close readings of stories where the human body is invaded, possessed, or driven mad. Articles explore the ethics of the human use of animals and the biblical contributions to the question. Other essays use the image of lions—animals that appear not only in the wild, but also in the Bible, ancient Near Eastern texts, and philosophy—to illustrate the potential these theories present for students of the Bible. Contributors George Aichele, Denise Kimber Buell, Benjamin H. Dunning, Heidi Epstein, Rhiannon Graybill, Jennifer L. Koosed, Eric Daryl Meyer, Stephen D. Moore, Hugh Pyper, Robert Paul Seesengood, Yvonne Sherwood, Ken Stone, and Hannah M. Strømmen present an open invitation for further work in the field of posthumanism.

Features:

• Coverage of texts that explore the boundaries between animal, human, and divinity


• Discussion of the term posthumanism and how it applies to biblical studies


• Essays engage Derrida, Foucault, Wolfe, Lacan, Žižek, Singer, Haraway, and others

Jennifer L. Koosed is Chair and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. She is the author of (Per)mutations of Qohelet: Reading the Body in the Book (Continuum, 2006) and Gleaning Ruth: A Biblical Heroine and Her Afterlives (University of South Carolina, 2011).