A Postmodern Approach to the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: post-Jungian and much more

Notice: Booking for this event is expected to open during January 2024

Date: Wednesday 20th March 2024 Location: Essex Church, 112 Palace Gardens Terrace, London W8 4RT - and online
Start time: 7:00pm End time: 9:00pm Type: Lecture and Webinar Refreshments: tbc

The Hebrew Bible is a sacred text to millions of people around the world, and yet some of its content is really difficult to understand and make meaningful. This presentation will consider some of the challenging texts in the Hebrew Bible and whether an approach that includes dialogics and queer theory can help deepen our understanding and make us look anew at the material selected. I will use the lens of post-Jungian psychology with a particular focus on psychological development and how, if it all, this new approach illuminates the texts of the Hebrew Bible. I will also consider the Rule Texts from Qumran and whether their suspicion of outsiders can be attributed to shadow projection.

Please note that booking for all webinars closes two hours before the advertised start time.

Image: Museum exhibits representing a Torah at the former Glockengasse Synagogue, which was in Cologne but was completely destroyed. These are at the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum. This file (cropped from the original) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Speaker: Rabbi Helen Freeman

Rabbi Dr Helen Freeman has been a member of the Guild for over thirty years. Originally a speech therapist by training, she became intrigued by the psychological element in language disorders such as dysfluency and stammering and that ignited her interest in psychological training. After an introductory training at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation, she trained as a Jungian analyst with the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists. Qualified as a rabbi since 1990, she has had the great joy of serving the West London Synagogue of British Jews, the oldest Reform Synagogue in the country since 1999. She is now co-senior rabbi, with special responsibility for pastoral care, interfaith and social action. Her recent PhD studied separation in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature: a post-Jungian approach. [Last updated 2023]