Disposing of Non-Disposable texts
by James Watts
From The Death of Sacred Texts: Ritual Disposal and Renovation of Texts in the World Religions, ed. Kristina Myrvold. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 147-59.
These concluding reflections on the essays in The Death of Sacred Texts consider evidence that the disposal of secular... more These concluding reflections on the essays in The Death of Sacred Texts consider evidence that the disposal of secular books also evokes serious concern. There is an inherent tension in most literate cultures between the idea of a book or enduring text on the one hand and the possibility of its disposal or destruction on the other. Disposing of books transgresses inhibitions reinforced by family, school, media, and government. The concern for book preservation involves respect for culture(s), veneration of traditions, and, at its root, the preservation of cultural values. Factors other than information preservation are at work here. The most prominent secular reliquaries are museums and libraries, though private collections also perform this function. The book practices of religious communities can be understood as extensions of the book practices of their wider cultures.
Ritual Rhetoric in Ancient Near Eastern Texts
by James Watts
James W. Watts, “Ritual Rhetoric in Ancient Near Eastern Texts,” in Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics, ed. Carol Lipson and Roberta Binckley, West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2009, pp. 39-66.
Many ancient Near Eastern texts reflect a concern for ritual accuracy. They depict ancient kings justifying their... more
Many ancient Near Eastern texts reflect a concern for ritual accuracy. They depict ancient kings justifying their ritual practices on the basis of supposedly invariable tradition and, frequently, on the basis of old ritual texts. They also invoke ritual acts and omissions to explain the course of past history and to promise future punishments and rewards. In fact, very many texts assert that ritual performance is the most determinative factor in the success or failure of rulers and nations. The rhetoric of ritual therefore pervaded royal propaganda as well as temple texts. It also provided the principal rationale for criticizing the status quo.
This chapter surveys the use of ritual rhetoric for persuasive purposes in texts of diverse genres and cultures of the ancient Near East before considering the persuasive function of ritual texts per se. Once the rhetorical role of ritual has been observed in texts with overt persuasive intentions, it can be evaluated better in the less explicitly persuasive contexts of ritual texts and their ritual use. The latter texts were themselves often ritual products—written, read and manipulated to shape ritual performances and to pronounce judgment on the performers.
Using Ezra's Time as a Methodological Pivot for Understanding the Rhetoric and Functions of the Pentateuch
by James Watts
From The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research (ed. T. B. Dozeman, K. Schmid and B. J. Schwarz; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), pp. 489-506.
The Persian period saw the transformation of pentateuchal materials into a scripture, the Torah. The story of Ezra... more The Persian period saw the transformation of pentateuchal materials into a scripture, the Torah. The story of Ezra exemplifies that transformation by its description of his manipulation of the physical scroll, his oral reading of it before the people of Jerusalem, and his arrangement for its professional translation/interpretation by Levites. These rituals have characterized the function of the Torah (and other scriptures) from that time forward. The Persian period, however, also marks a major change in the nature of our evidence for the form, contents and meaning of pentateuchal materials. The only historical evidence from before the time of Ezra for the Pentateuch’s composition, meaning and use must be derived inductively from literary analyses of biblical texts. From the time of the Ezra story on, our data comes increasingly from explicit references to Torah scrolls in other literature (including the books of Ezra and Nehemiah), translations of the Pentateuch’s text (e.g. the Septuagint) and material evidence such as manuscripts (e.g. Qumran) and ancient synagogue architecture. The transformation of the Pentateuch into scripture around the time of Ezra thus marks a watershed not only in Jewish religious history but also in the methods and data available to modern historians. Pentateuchal studies should develop the capacity to correlate the divergent methods used to study the Pentateuch on both sides of this scriptural divide in order to give a comprehensive account of the Torah’s history and significance. I suggest that rhetorical analysis can provide an overarching methodological umbrella under which to arrange the results of other methods of interpretation coherently.
Ten Commandments Monuments and the Rivalry of Iconic Texts
by James Watts
Journal of Religion and Society, Vol. 6. (2004).
The legal and political controversy over Ten Commandments monuments in the United States involves iconic texts holding... more The legal and political controversy over Ten Commandments monuments in the United States involves iconic texts holding a discrete symbolic value compared to texts whose function primarily is to be read. The nation's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, have also increasingly been turned into monumental icons over the last half-century. The Ten Commandments controversy can therefore be understood in terms of competition among iconic texts for symbolic supremacy. Like the placement of divine images in ancient Near Eastern temples, struggles over the public display of iconic national and religious texts involve claims for their relative prestige in contemporary America.
The Three Dimensions of Scriptures (2006/2008)
by James Watts
Postscripts 2.2-3 (2006, but published 2008), 135-59.
This article proposes a new model for understanding the ways that scriptures function. Several big media stories of... more This article proposes a new model for understanding the ways that scriptures function. Several big media stories of recent years, such as those surrounding controversies over Ten Commandments monuments in U.S. courthouses and Qur’ans desecrated at Guantánamo Bay, involve the iconic function of scriptures. Yet contemporary scholarship on Jewish, Christian, or Muslim scriptures is ill-prepared to interpret these events because it has focused almost all its efforts on textual interpretation. Even the increased attention to the performative function of scripture by Wilfred Cantwell Smith and his students does not provide resources for understanding the iconic roles of scriptures. This article addresses the gap by theorizing the nature of scriptures as a function of their ritualization in three dimensions—semantic, performative, and iconic. The model provides a means for conceptualizing how traditions ritualize scriptures and how they claim and negotiate social power through this process.
DownloadDesecrating Scriptures (2009)
by James Watts
A Case Study for the LUCE Project in Media, Religion and International Relations
This case study describes the effects of ritualizing books of scripture and compares their ritualization in four... more This case study describes the effects of ritualizing books of scripture and compares their ritualization in four religious traditions in order to contextualize the phenomenon of desecrating scriptures cross-culturally and explain the political furors aroused by media coverage of particular incidents.