Rethinking the Community as Temple: Discourse and Spatial Practice in the Community Rule (1QS)

<p>This project is a spatial reading of the Community Rule (1QS) that examines how space is used as a response to the perceived defilement of the Jerusalem Temple and how it addresses the problems of atonement and priestly authority for a community without a physical temple. Edward Soja’s concept of Thirdspace—social space transformed by material and mental spaces—illuminates how temple, military, and judicial spaces order social and divine relationships for those who followed 1QS. In turn, this spatial practice creates a new place that enables the community to contest the Jerusalem Temple’s authority while legitimizing its own. While Edward Soja’s notion of Thirdspace guides my understanding of space and place, I flesh out his ideas with Mikhail Bakhtin’s work on discourse and heteroglossia and Pierre Bourdieu’s work on practice and habitus. Together, these three thinkers provide a theoretical framework for reading 1QS and examining how spatial discourse and practice functioned for and informed the identity of its authors.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Pula, Melissa P.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Alison Schofield, Ph.D.
• Pamela Eisenbaum
• Jacob Kinnard

• Community rule
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Edward Soja
• Spatial theory
• Biblical Studies
• Religion

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/527

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1526