PRESENT AND RECENT ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Associate Professor of Jewish Civilization
2007-Present
Georgetown University
Program for Jewish Civilization
School of Foreign Service

Visiting Professor of Jewish Civilization, 2005-2007
Georgetown University
Program for Jewish Civilization
School of Foreign Service

Associate Professor of Religious Studies, 2005-
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages, 1997-2005
Director of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, 1997-
Hofstra University

Affiliated Faculty, Graduate Program in Biblical Studies, 2004
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Affiliated Faculty, Graduate Program in “Religion and Society”
Affiliated Faculty, Graduate Program in “Official/Popular Religion in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.” 1998-2002
Drew University

EDUCATION

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

New York University, Ph. D., Hebrew and Judaic Studies, 1991

The New School for Social Research, M.A., Sociology, 1993

New York University, M.A., Hebrew and Judaic Studies, 1988

New York University, B.A., Psychology, 1986

PUBLICATIONS

Books
The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, August 2005).

Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999).

The Vow and the “Popular Religious Groups” of Ancient Israel: A Philological and Sociological Inquiry. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996).


Edited Volumes

Thumping the Bible: Experts in Scripture Speak about its Use and Abuse in Contemporary Politics, Eds., Jacques Berlinerblau and Philip Davies. Interviews with sixteen leading biblical exegetes. Manuscript in progress. Right of first refusal granted to Cambridge University Press.

Articles

“On Philosemitism,” Georgetown University Occasional Papers (forthcoming).

“Durkheim’s Theory of Misrecognition: In Praise of Arrogant Theory,” in Teaching Durkheim, Ed. T. Godlove (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) 213-233.

“The Bible as Literature?” Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 9-26.

“Free Will and Determinism in First Isaiah: Secular Hermeneutics, The Poetics of Contingency, and Émile Durkheim’s Homo Duplex,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71 (2003) 767-791.

“The Delicate Flower of Biblical Sociology,” in Tracking The Tribes of Yahweh: On The Trail of a Classic, Ed. R. Boer (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002) 59-76.

“‘Poor Bird, Not Knowing Which Way to Fly’: Biblical Scholarship’s Marginality, Secular Humanism, and the Laudable Occident,” Biblical Interpretation 10 (2002) 267-304.

“Max Weber’s Useful Ambiguities and the Problem of Defining ‘Popular Religion,’”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 69 (2001) 605-626.

“Toward a Sociology of Heresy, Orthodoxy, and Doxa,” History of Religions 40 (2001) 327-351.

“Official Religion and Popular Religion in Pre-Exilic Ancient Israel,” The Twenty-third Annual Rabbi Louis Feinberg Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies (Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Press, 2000).

“Ideology, Pierre Bourdieu’s Doxa, and the Hebrew Bible,” Semeia 87 (1999)193-214.

“Preliminary Remarks for the Sociological Study of Israelite ‘Official Religion,’” in Ki Baruch Hu: Essays Submitted to Baruch Levine in Honor of his 65th Birthday,Eds. R. Chazan, W.W. Hallo, and L.H. Schiffman (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1999) 153-170.

“The Present Crisis and Uneven Triumphs of Biblical Sociology: Responses to N. Gottwald, S. Mandell, P. Davies, M. Sneed, R. Simkins and N. Lemche,” in Concepts of Class in Ancient Israel Ed. M. Sneed (Florida: University of South Florida Press, 1999) 132-150.

“Some Sociological Observations on Moshe Greenberg’s Biblical Prose Prayer as a Window to the Popular Religion of Ancient Israel,” Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 12 (1995) 1-14.


“The ‘Popular Religion’ Paradigm in Old Testament Research: A Sociological Critique,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 60 (1993) 3-26.

“The Israelite Vow: Distress or Daily Life?” Biblica 72 (1991) 548-555.

Articles in Anthologies

“The ‘Popular Religion’ Paradigm in Old Testament Research: A Sociological Critique,” in Social-Scientific Old Testament Criticism: A Sheffield Reader. Ed. D. Chalcraft (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) 53-76.

Encyclopedia Entries

“Sociology of Ancient Israel,” in Encyclopedia Judaica, Rev. Ed. Ed. David Sperling (Forthcoming)

Interviews

“Interview with Jacques Berlinerblau, Author of The Secular Bible Why
Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously,” Free Inquiry, November 2005
(forthcoming)



Reviews

“The Observer Observed,” (Hebrew) Review of Saul Bellow’s The Actual. Ha-Doar, (March 5th,1999) 19.

“To Our Enemies, Confusion!” (Hebrew) Review of Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh. Ha -Doar (September 20th, 1998) 37-38.

“We Scholars,” Review of Mary Lefkowitz’s Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History and Black Athena Revisited, Eds. M. Lefkowitz and Guy MacLean Rogers. The Nation (Oct. 28, 1996) 42-48.

Articles Posted on Websites

“Official Religion and Popular Religion in Pre-Exilic Ancient Israel,” on bibleinterp.org



CONFERENCES

Invited Scholarly Lectures

.Panel Discussion, Jacques Berlinerblau’s The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously. Respondents, David Clines, Michael Fox, Philip Davies. Presented by the Social Sciences and the Interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures Section of the Society of Biblical Literature, November 2005.

“On Philosemitism,” Georgetown University Program for Jewish Civilization, September 28th , 2005.

“Is Secularism Dead?” Sponsored by the Wolfson Center for National Affairs of the New School for Social Research, September 27th , 2005.

“On Alan Wolfe’s The Transformation of American Religion,” (Moderator/Discussant) Panelists. Alan Wolfe, Michael Lind, Peggy Steinfels, Juan Williams. New School for Social Research, November 19th , 2003.

“Who Wrote the Bible? Some Heretical Responses Based on the Archaeological and Inscriptional Evidence of Seemingly Orthodox Israelites,” Hofstra University Distinguished Faculty Lecture, Feb. 28th, 2001.

“The Goddess and Ancient Israelite Popular Religion,” The Twenty-third Annual Rabbi Louis Feinberg Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati, May 11th, 2000.

“Martin Bernal’s Black Athena and the Field of Classics,” University of Cincinnati,
Department of Classics, May 12th, 2000.

“What Does Martin Bernal’s Black Athena Teach Us about Heresy in the University?” The New School for Social Research, December 8th, 1999.

“An Inquisition at Brooklyn College: Martin Bernal's Heresies,” The Ewen Lecture in Civil Liberties. Sponsored by the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College. Dec. 10th,1996.

“Martin Bernal's Black Athena and the Sociology of Knowledge,” Sponsored by the Department of Sociology of the New School for Social Research, Dec. 10th, 1996.

“Politics and History in Martin Bernal's Black Athena,” The New School for Social Research. Center for Historical Studies Annual Conference. April 30th,1993.


“Sociological Perspectives on Israelite Religion,” Columbia University Hebrew Bible Faculty Seminar, Oct. 13th, 1992.

Conferences Directed and Scholarly Panels Organized

Organizer (with Daniel Varisco), “Islam, Hermeneutics and Secular Humanism,” Providence Rhode Island, SAR, April 2003.

Organizer, Moderator, Respondent, “Durkheimian Collective Representations and Religion: Possibilities and Problems,” New Brunswick, Regional AAR/SBL, March 2000.

Symposium Director, “Israel at 50," Hofstra University, Fall 1998

Papers Delivered at Scholarly Conferences

“The Secular Study of the Qur’?n: Prospects and Problems,” Philadelphia, November, 2005, SBL.

“Ecumenicism and the Scholarly Study of Islam,” San Antonio, November 21st 2004, SBL.

“Textual Self-Consciousness, the Hebrew Bible, and the Qur’?n,” San Antonio, November 22nd, 2004, SBL.

“The Bible as Literature? Against ‘Mono-Authorism,’” Atlanta, Nov. 24th 2003, SBL.

“The Bible, The Quran and Secular Hermeneutics,” Providence, April 3rd 2003, SAR.

“The Book of Genesis as Collective Representation,” Denver, November 2001, SBL.

“Determinism and Freewill in Isaiah and Jeremiah,” Rome, July 10th, 2001, SBL.

“Why Has a Tradition of Secular Humanism Never Developed in the Field of Biblical Scholarship?” Nashville, Nov. 20th, 2000, SBL.

“Race, the Hebrew Bible, and Martin Bernal’s Black Athena,” Nashville, Nov. 21st, 2000, SBL.

“Bourdieu and Bible,” Boston, Nov. 22nd, 1999, SBL.

“The Doxa of Scripture,” Orlando, Nov 20th, 1998, SBL.

“Northwest Semites in the Aegean?: Evaluating the Gordon-Astour-Bernal School,” San Francisco, Nov. 23rd ,1997, SBL.

“The Sociology of Israelite Religion After Twenty Five Years: A Critical Appraisal,” Nov. 20th,1996, New Orleans, SBL.

“Israelite 'Official Religion': Some Preliminary Sociological Observations,” Philadelphia, Nov. 19th ,1995, SBL.

“Gender and Genocide: A Response to Professor Helen Fein,” Washington, D.C., Aug, 21th, 1995, ASA.

“The Sociology of Israelite Religion: Introducing a New Paradigm,” Louvain, Belgium. Aug. 5th , 1994, SBL.

“The Sociology of Sacred Texts: The Concept of Power From Nietzsche/Weber to Michel Foucault,” Washington, D.C., Nov. 20th, 1993, SBL.

“Max Weber's Ancient Judaism and the Study of 'Popular Religion,” Miami, Aug. 15th, 1993, ASA.


“'Official Religion': The Other Side of 'Popular Religion,’” Miami, Aug 12th, 1993, ASR.

“'Official Religion' and the Study of Ancient Israel,” Philadelphia, Mar. 5th, 1993, SBL (regional conference).

“The 'Popular Religion' Paradigm: Where Do We Stand? Where Do We Go?” Pittsburgh, Aug. 18th, 1992, ASR.

“'Popular Religion' in the Sociology of Max Weber,” Washington, D.C., February 27th, 1992, SBL.

“'Popular Religion' in Studies of Ancient Judaism: A Sociological Reading and a Methodological Critique,” Kansas City, Nov. 23rd,1992.

“The 'Popular/Official' Paradigm in the Study of Israelite Religion,” Rome, July 17th,1991, SBL.

“The Israelite Vow as a Window to the So-Called 'Popular Religion,'” New York, March 19th, SBL.

Professional Activities

Member Steering Committee: “Social Sciences and the Interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures,” Section, SBL.

Referee of Book Manuscripts, Oxford University Press, Duke University Press.

Professional Associations

Society of Biblical Literature
American Academy of Religion
American Sociological Association
Association of Jewish Studies

Languages

Hebrew, near native fluency (speaking, writing, reading)
French, near native fluency (speaking, reading)
Italian (reading and speaking ability)
German (reading ability)

Biblical Hebrew
Canaanite Dialects

Awards

Distinguished Faculty Lecture (Hofstra University) 2000
Stessin Prize (Best Publication by a Faculty Member at Hofstra University) 1999
Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, New York University, 1990




Media Appearances

Invited Speaker for Screening of “Israel Beyond the Horizon.” PBS Affiliate, WLIW. February 16th 2005 (national live feed).

Interviewed by National Public Radio in a report about a class I team-taught with Dr. Heather Parker, “Blacks and Jews: Interrelations in the Diaspora.” March, 1999.

Interviewed by Lillian Brown for Georgetown University Forum (Radio Broadcast aired internationally on National Public Radio, Armed Forces Radio Network, and Voice of America). October 26th , 2005

Interviewed by Alan Cooperman for Washington Post, “Among Evangelicals, A Kinship With Jews” January 8th , 2006.

Interviewed by Jeri Zeder, for The Forward, “Catholic Colleges Give Jewish Programs a Lift,” January 20th, 2006.