Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Charismatic Books from Jerusalem to Beijing, Part 1
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Summary
The first of a two-part class, titled “Charismatic Books from Jerusalem to Beijing” focuses on charismatic books, covering materials ranging from Deuteronomy to the Qur'an, concluding with Mao’s Little Red Book. What are the elements that contribute to the “charisma” of particular books? Who produces and for what purposes? The journey begins with the charismatic book’s origins in ancient Jerusalem, and it continues through to modern-day China.
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite teaches Chinese History, Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and sometimes Jewish history, at New York University. He is author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 2005); The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, 2009); co-editor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Culture, and Politics (Brandeis, 2013); The Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a Concept (Columbia University Press, 2017); and Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History (Hawaii University Press, 2023).