Migratory Thought: Dialogues Between Biblical Scholarship and Anthropology on Human Mobility
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In recent decades, biblical scholars have begun to read the narratives about ancient persons and peoples on the move in dialogue with modern migration studies. As part of this broader trend, I became involved in a research project focused on descriptions of the earliest Jewish diaspora in the Hebrew Bible and historical documents due to my background as an anthropologist specializing in contemporary migration. This article aims to strengthen and systemize this emerging interdisciplinary conversation about human mobility. It provides a methodological catalog outlining four different ways biblical scholars and students may draw comparatively from the study of modern mobilities to shed new light on ancient and biblical worlds of motion. These four methods are tentatively labeled (1) applying new categories, (2) asking new questions, (3) thinking through concepts, and (4) exposing implicit biases. The article defines these as different comparative heuristics and uses the book of Ruth to reflect upon their respective strengths, limits, and unintended consequences.
Source: Religions
DOI: 10.3390/rel16050540
Author: Ida Hartmann
Institution: University of Copenhagen
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
OpenAlex ID: W4409701060