March 5, 2004 — On Thursday, March 11, James L. Kugel, recently retired Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University and Professor of Bible at Bar Ilan University in Israel, will present “The God of Old: How the Ancient Israelites Saw God with Their Own Eyes.” The lecture, followed by a reception, will begin at 3:30 p.m. and will be held in Parlor A of the Olpin Union Building, located at 200 Central Campus Drive, on the University of Utah campus. The event is free and open to the public.

“James Kugel is a world-renowned authority on the Bible,” notes University Professor of Hebrew Harris Lenowitz. “His research on various interpretations of the Bible, including Jewish and Christian, has expanded centuries-old views and understanding of the Bible.”

While at Harvard, Kugel’s course, “The Bible and Its Interpreters,” frequently attracted more then 900 students. Kugel is author of the book The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible, which was published last year. Among other books he has also authored Studies in Ancient Midrash (2001), The Bible As It Was (1999) and The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History (1998). In 2001, Kugel was awarded the prestigious Gawemeyer Prize in Religion for The Bible As It Was. He was also a finalist for the 1998 National Book Critic Circle Award.

While in town, Kugel will teach a master class in biblical Hebrew at the University. A free, public lecture, titled “On [My] Being a Jew,” will be held on Wednesday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Kol Ami, located at 2425 Heritage Way. For more information on the event, call 801-484-1501.

Kugel’s lecture is sponsored by the Tanner Humanities Center, the Religious Interest Group (RIG), IMPACT/Jewish Studies, Eta Beta Rho, Kibbutz Si’ah, the United Jewish Federation of Utah and the Religious Studies Interest Group. For more information on the lecture, call 801-581-5291.