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How do groups of people engage themselves with a "central and center-ing" text? What does this engagement tell us about how the people express themselves? How do dominant groups interpret this engagement? Seen in the refracting mirror of contemporary scholarly discourse, what does conventional interpretation of the engagement say about those dominant groups doing the interpretation? These questions can perhaps be most fruitfully asked of that very central text, the Bible. Building upon his long time work on the question of African-American engagement with Christian Scripture, Vincent Wimbush, Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University - and a scholar of Early Christian Asceticism and ideologies and forms of renunciation of the world - is currently exploring how the historical and psychological implications of a relationship between a people and a text reflect the general tensions implicit in "expressive culture." In particular, he is interested in the dual nature of African-American religious tradition: the need at once to "rip" or resist the "symbolic order" of the master narrative (a narrative that protects the artificial "otherness" imposed by the powerful on African-Americans) and the need to weave meaning from the parts of the ripped veil to sustain self-empowerment and healing. Interested in the phenomenological and political uses of scriptures in societies and cultures, Professor Wimbush will also look at the challenges to interpretation brought to the fore by such historical and literary figures as DuBois and Morrison.
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