Evyatar Marienberg

Text:
Increase font size
Decrease font size

Evyatar Marienberg

Associate Professor

Education

  • Ph.D., Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1999-2002
  • D.E.A., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sorbonne, Paris, 1998-1999
  • Licence de Théologie, Institut Catholique de Paris, 1994-1998
  • Rabbinics, Yeshivat ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati, Ein Tzurim, 1990-1993

Research Interests

  • Rabbinics
  • Contemporary Catholicism
  • Social History of Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe

PERSO-Professional Biography

I am a historian of religions, having a particular focus on the study of beliefs and practices of lay Jews and Christians from various periods. I am a strong believer in the many intellectual and scholarly benefits of studying more than one religious culture, whether a comparison is intended or not. I am Jewish. I was raised in a rather strict Jewish Modern Orthodox community, but, as it happens, lost my faith in its beliefs and the justifications of its cherished practices a long time ago (to be precise, in my very late 20s, which might be a relatively old age for that). I never shared its ideological or political aims; it probably helped losing faith in everything else dear to this community. For about two decades already, and I doubt this will ever change, I do not believe in any of the transcendental claims of Judaism, Christianity, or any other religion. I am not religious, nor “spiritual”. This does not mean I do not appreciate, like, and keep various Jewish practices. I raise my children in a Judaism which is secular, yet honors some old traditions: I am not unique in that. Most Jews today probably do more or less the same. If my children would want a Christmas tree, for example, I will get it for them, but it will have a Star of David on the top, and Hanukkah objects will be in a much more prominent place in the house. If they want Easter chocolate bunnies I am all for it (as long as they share some with me), but the real holiday of that season will be Passover. Of course, I also respect (when they deserve it: no automatic “people can believe and support whatever they want, and that’s fine” in my world) people who are believers and/or are members of religious groups of almost all kinds, as well as, obviously, those who are not. I appreciate the existence of religions, because studying them helps me pay my bills.

Born in Israel, in the beautiful port city of Haifa, I studied for several years at Yeshivat Ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati of Ein-Tzurim. Later, during a five-year stay in Paris, I studied Catholic theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris, and religious studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sorbonne. I was then appointed a visiting fellow at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University in New York, and, a year-and-a-half later, an assistant professor (special category) in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University in Montreal.

Before coming to UNC in 2009, I spent a year teaching at Paideia Institute in Stockholm, and three years of teaching and research at Tel Aviv University. I spent also a year as a Carey postdoctoral fellow at the Erasmus Institute at the University of Notre Dame, two years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and one semester at Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies. During my time at UNC, I was a fellow for one semester at the Frankel Institute at the University of Michigan, and had a research leave in Israel.

My doctoral dissertation (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2002), written in French, was devoted to the conceptualization of menstruation in Jewish and Christian cultures, with a particular interest in the Medieval and Early Modern periods. Its two parts were published as two separate books: Niddah, Lorsque les juifs conceptualisent la menstruation (Les Belles Lettres, 2003), and La Baraita de-Niddah: Un texte juif pseudo-talmudique sur les lois religieuses relatives à la menstruation (Brepols, 2012). Please don’t ask me what brought a (relatively) nice Jewish boy to spend years on studying menstruation. I do not know. Or prefer not to.

Another book of mine, Catholicism Today: An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church, was published in March 2010 by Carmel Press in Israel, being the first-ever book on the matter in Hebrew. A thoroughly revised and adapted English version was published by Routledge in 2014. Same here: don’t ask why.

My most recent book, Sting and Religion: The Catholic-Shaped Imagination of a Rock Icon (Cascade Books / Wipf & Stock, 2021), is a study of a Catholic parish, Our Lady and St Columba, in Wallsend, a small town in North East England, in the 1950s-1970s, and how growing up in that parish possibly shaped the imagination and creativity of the most famous person hailing from that community, the rock star Sting. Finally, I worked on something of importance! Shortly after that book’s publication, I released a smaller, independently published, related volume. It explores some elements in the history of Religion in England that I find of importance when trying to understand contemporary England (and Sting’s community of origin), but which did not find their place in the main book. If you are interested in that kind of stuff, I think it is not too bad, after all.

Another book of mine, on traditional Jewish guides to marital sexuality (yes; too often, sadly, as we know by now, academics spend their life on exploring weird things), will be completed and published, I hope, in the near future.

For a complete CV, if you really need that (why would you??), click here.

MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT

Father of the best two kids ever!!!!!

Awards (A.K.A LESS IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS)

  • Fellow, Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Winter 2014
  • Starr Fellow, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, Spring 2008
  • Carey Postdoctoral Fellow, Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame, 2006-2007
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Tel Aviv University, 2004-2006

Courses I HAPPEN TO TEACH

  • FREN 308       Religion in France and in the Francophone World (in French, syllabus)
  • RELI 088        Religion and Society in Historical Novels (introductory video)
  • RELI 108        Traditional Jewish Literature (poster from 2020)
  • RELI 162        Catholicism Today: An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church (+ Online version) (introductory video)
  • RELI 270        Religion In Western Europe (cross-listing: EURO 270) (poster from 2020)
  • RELI 450        Sexuality & Marriage in Jewish Tradition & History
  • RELI 525        Medieval Jewish Bible Interpretation
  • RELI 566        Jewish Legal Literature
  • RELI 566x      Islamic and Jewish Legal Literature (with Ahmed El Shamsy, poster)
  • RELI 662        Advanced Seminar in Contemporary Catholicism
  • RELI 697        Religion and Law (poster from 2019)

SOME PublicationS

Sting and Religion: The Catholic-Shaped Imagination of a Rock Icon, Cascade Books / Wipf & Stock, Oregon 2021

La Baraita de-Niddah : Un texte juif pseudo-talmudique sur les lois religieuses relatives à la menstruation (The Baraita de-Niddah: a Pseudo-Talmudic Jewish Text about the Religious Laws Concerning Menstruation), Brepols, Turnhout 2012

Niddah. Lorsque les juifs conceptualisent la menstruation (Niddah: When Jews Conceptualise Menstruation), Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2003

Selected Articles

“Menstruation – Post-Biblical (Rabbanite) Judaism“, in: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, Vol. 18, De Gruyter, Berlin – Boston 2020, pp. 665-672

“O My God: Religion in Sting’s Early Lyrics“, The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 31.3 (2019), pp. 223-235 (with an introductory blog here).

“Bible, Religion, and Catholicism in Sting’s album and musical The Last Ship“, Studies in Musical Theatre 12.3 (2018), pp. 319-335

“Death, Resurrection, Sacraments, and Myths: Religion Around Sting“, in: Cultural Icons and Cultural Leadership, Edited by Peter Iver Kaufman and Kristin M. S. Bezio, Edward Elgar Publishing, UK and Northampton MA, 2017, pp. 167-185

“Jews, Jesus, and Menstrual Blood“, Transversal: Journal for Jewish Studies 14 (2016), pp. 1-10

“Female Fertility in Talmudic Literature” (Hebrew), Hebrew Union College Annual 86-87 (2015-2016), pp. 47-94

“La Halakhah. Observée ou ignorée ? Unificatrice ou séparatrice ?” (The Halakhah : Observed, or Ignored? Unifying, or Separating?), Tsafon 65 (2013), pp. 63-71

“Aufklärung als innerjüdische Herausforderung: Rabbi Moses Schreiber, ‘häretische jüdische Doktoren’, und Ritualbäder” (Enlightenment as Inner-Jewish Challenge: Rabbi Moses Schreiber, ‘Heretic Jewish Physicians‘, and Ritual Bathing), DAVID – Jüdische Kulturzeitschrift 94 (Fall 2012), pp. 68-71

“Qui coierit cum muliere in fluxu menstruo… interficientur ambo (Lev. 20:18) – The Biblical Prohibition of Sexual Relations with a Menstruant in the Eyes of Some Medieval Christian Theologians“, in: Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov Elman, Edited by Shai Secunda and Steven Fine, Brill, Leiden 2012, pp. 271-284

“The Stealing of the ‘Apple of Eve’ from the 13th century Synagogue of Winchester”, in: Henri III Fine Rolls Project, Fine of the Month: December 2011 (With David Carpenter)

“The Second Council of the Vatican: Current Debates” (Hebrew), Zmanim 101 (2008), pp. 28-41

EXAMPLES OF TALKS OR INTERVIEWS THAT WERE UNFORTUNATELY RECORDED

“What is Niddah? Menstruation in Judaism”, Polin: Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, November 23, 2017