Jacques Berlinerblau

Associate Professor of Jewish Civilization

Ph. D, 1991, Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, New York University

Ph. D, 1999, Sociology, The New School for Social Research

Jacques Berlinerblau


Jacques Berlinerblau holds separate doctorates in ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, and in Sociology. He is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Berlinerblau has published on a wide variety of issues ranging from the composition of the Hebrew Bible, to the sociology of heresy, to modern Jewish intellectuals, to African-American and Jewish-American relations. His articles on these and other subjects have appeared in Biblica, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Semeia, Biblical Interpretation, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages, Hebrew Studies, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and History of Religions.

He has published three books, including Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibility of American Intellectuals (Rutgers University Press). His most recent book was released in September, 2005 and is entitled The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must take Religion Seriously (Cambridge University Press).

His next book, Thumpin' It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today's Presidential Politics, will be released in January, 2008 (Westminster John Knox).