IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 814: When God Speaks and Nature Listens: Climate and Divine Revelations in Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism

Tuesday 6 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:	Ariel Zinder, Department of Literature, Tel Aviv University
Moderator/Chair:	John Reuben Davies, School of Humanities (History), University of Glasgow
Paper 814-a	Floods, Time, and Divine Speech in the Mahābhārata (Language: English) Ophira Gamliel, Centrum für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien, Ruhr-Universität Bochum Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Local History, Religious Life, Theology
Paper 814-b	Divine Letters and Creation: Between Jewish and Islamic Mysticism in Medieval Spain (Language: English) Michael Ebstein, Department of Arabic Language & Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Philosophy, Theology
Paper 814-c	'I am thy Lord who…': Divine Speech, Creation, and History in Medieval Hebrew Poems (Language: English) Ariel Zinder, Department of Literature, Tel Aviv University Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Language and Literature - Semitic, Liturgy, Theology
Abstract	The panel explores the various ways in which God is voiced in relation to climate and extreme weather events. Which climatic phenomena are imagined in relation to divine expression? How do different religions conceptualize divine speech acting upon or enacted by climatic events? We will examine textual representations of divine speech against the backdrop of weather and climate in different religions and languages: Hinduism (Sanskrit), Islam (Arabic), and Judaism (Hebrew). Each speaker will also address a different genre: the Mahābhārata, Muslim and Jewish mystical treatises, and Hebrew liturgical poems.