SIP fosters interdisciplinary studies of religious practice,
textual study, history, theology, and interpretation among students
of the scriptural religions. SIP draws its methods from out of
the comparative study of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim practices
of scriptural study and interpretation, but it also extends these
methods to the study of other scripturally centered traditions.
The primary goal of SIP is to examine the Bible, the Qur'an, and
other scriptures as literatures that generate communities of religious
practice: practices of study, of interpretation and reflection,
of ritual, and of social life. All these practices are examined
in their own terms as well as in their relations to the scriptural
literatures.
The Area of SIP supports three specific programs of study:
Comparative Scripture,
Interpretation and Practice
This program explores the phenomena of scriptural study, textual
interpretation, and religious practice in all three of the Abrahamic
traditions, as well as in other scripturally centered traditions.
While specializing in one scriptural tradition and in one family
of study practices, each student explores all of the study practices
within SIP and at least three scriptural traditions.
The Study of Judaism
At the present time, this program focuses specifically on the
study of Modern Judaism. Three sub-areas of Modern Judaism are
studied: Textuality, or the study of how modern Jews re-interpret
Judaism's sacred text tradition; Practice, or modern approaches
to the rituals, observances, and social practices of Judaism;
and Thought, or studies of the encounter between Judaism and Western,
as well as non-Western, philosophical sources.
Islamic Scripture,
Interpretation, and Practice
In this program, graduate students with a concentration in Islam
investigate the dominant modes of scriptural reasoning prevalent
among Muslims. They study the Qur'anic tradition on four levels:
Encounter with the Qur'an, Encounter with the Tradition (the Sunnah),
Encounter with modern Muslim responses to the classical heritage,
and Encounter with recent "postmodern" or "postliberal" approaches
to scriptural reasoning among all three of the Abrahamic traditions.
