Maeera Shreiber on Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone

Join us for a book launch and public lecture, co-sponsored with the Center for Jewish History.

Over the last 50 years, Jewish-Christian dialogue has made enormous strides. We now read each other’s scriptures and openly discuss differences, as well as contiguities. Yet, many such encounters have become somewhat rote and predictable. Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone seeks to sharpen the dialogue by inviting readers to push past familiar terrain and explore the complex emotional landscape that sometimes colors one’s relationship with the religious “Other.” Demonstrating how such emotions as shame, envy, and desire can inform these encounters, Holy Envy charts a new way of thinking about interreligious relations. Moreover, by focusing on modern and contemporary writers who traffic in the volatile space between Judaism and Christianity, the book calls attention to how these emotionally intense interactions make for creative possibilities. Holy Envy will engage readers who are interested in literature, religion, and, above all, interfaith dialogue.

Maeera Y. Shreiber is an associate professor of English and former director of Religious Studies at the University of Utah, where she teaches and writes about poetry, Jewish American literature, ethnic American studies, religious studies, and interfaith relations. Shreiber is the author of, among other books, Singing in a Strange Land: A Jewish American Poetics (2007).

This in-person event will also be livestreamed on Zoom for those unable to attend in person. Please indicate how you will attend during registration.