This dissertation seeks to connect the notions of race and religion to the scholarly construction of Judaism and Jewishness (Judentum) by analyzing the work of nineteenthcentury German Protestant biblical scholar Wilhelm Bousset. A key figure in the history of religion school that sought to situate the study of Christian origins as objective scholarship, Bousset was instrumental in producing Spätjudentum as the normative term for what is now referred to as Second Temple Judaism in a way that both maintained the assumed theological superiority of Christianity and rendered Judaism a dead end within the history of religion. Moreover, the dissertation argues that the phenomenological notion of religion that grounds Boussets construction of Spätjudentum reflects the primary binary of spirit/matter that is used to construct and maintain hierarchical difference, allowing the traditional theological binary of Christian/Jew to be read as a racialized German/Jew binary. Bousset is first situated within the intersecting discourses of Western colonialism and comparative religion (Religionswissenschaft), German völkisch ideology and anti-semitism, and traditional Christian supersessionism. The dissertation then examines how his representation of Spätjudentum/Judentum within an evolutionary framework of the history of religion draws upon the tropes of development and degeneration that are also embedded within scientific racial theory in order to construct and maintain Judentum as always other. By comparing Boussets specific construction of Spätjudentum/Judentum to that of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the prophet of anti-semitism at the turn of the twentieth century, the dissertation demonstrates how Bousset reflects, and thus legitimates, the racialized construction of Judentum within anti-semitic discourse. The final chapter situates Boussets construction of Judentum within orientalist scholarship by considering how Bousset creates, fills, and controls the space of Spätjudentum, effectively colonizing Judentum as an object of study within the academy. Noting the implications for the contemporary study of Christian origins, the study concludes by emphasizing the need for further research on how Judaism has functioned within the academic study of religion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03252012-134438 |
| Date | 31 March 2012 |
| Creators | Segroves, Diane M. |
| Contributors | Dr. Ted Smith, Dr. Arlene Tuchman, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, Dr. Jay Geller |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03252012-134438/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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