Thomas Römer - External activities

Jerusalem and Other Chosen Places

Online meeting organized by the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at Bar-Ilan University and Collège de France, September 30, 2021.

At this meeting, scholars from different countries will present archaeological and exegetical work on Jerusalem and other "chosen" cities of the ancient Near East. These will include papers on Jerusalem, Shilo, Samaria, Gerizim, Harran and Ashur.
A detailed program will be published shortly, with a link to the online meeting.

Organizers

• Aren Maeir (Bar-Ilan University)
• Thomas Römer (Collège de France)

How monotheism was born

Comment est né le monothéisme, Le Point, September 25, 2020.

The Flood myth : a flood of questions

Lecture given on March 29, 2019 at the University of Geneva.

The origins of the Bible - Meeting with Thomas Römer

Conference at the Musée international de la Réforme (MIR), March 19, 2019.

" Male and female he created them 

Complementarity between masculine and feminine in the two creation narratives of the Bible

Lecture given as part of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres's solemn public re-entry session, November 2018.

Archaeology and the Bible : a dangerous encounter ?

Lecture given as part of the European Heritage Days, September 16, 2018.

Interview with Professor Thomas Römer by Caroline Lachowsky, journalist at RFI, producer of the program Autour de la question.

Les rencontres des Mystères 2018

Dialogue with journalist Jocelyn Rochat as part of the Anthropos Café meetings on June 2, 2018.

The Biblical Traditions about the Ark of the Covenant

Lecture given at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, March 25, 2018.

La Bibbia e la realtà storica

Conference and debate at Swiss Italian Radio in Lugano (in French), December 15, 2017.

Exile and exodus

Podcasts from a series of five interviews for Radio Suisse Romande, November 6-10, 2017.

Is God tolerant ?

Prof. Römer's talk, September 2016, at the Théâtre de Vidy.

Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face

Intervention by Prof. Römer, March 17, 2015, in Le Forum Universitaire de l'Ouest Parisien.

Yhwh, a God of the Wilderness: A Biblical and Extrabiblical Investigation

Prof. Römer's talk, February 24, 2014, in Program in Judaic Studies at Brown.

War and Religion

Colloquium January 22-24, 2014

Lecture by Prof. Römer, January 22 : " War in the Hebrew Bible, between history and fiction ".

The book of Jeremiah : the construction of a prophet

University of Strasbourg, March 2013.

From Babel to Sodom : critiquing megacities in the book of Genesis

University of Strasbourg, March 2013.

Will we survive? A history of the end of the world

Cycle of lectures on Living History

Conference at the University of Geneva, Thursday, December 6, 2012.

Hebrew Bible and Greek Mythology: some case studies

Ancient Greece and Ancient Israel: Interactions and Parallels (10th to 4th Centuries BCE).

Conference at Tel Aviv University - October 28-30, 2012.

Sacred texts in a globalized world

Anne Cheng and Thomas Römer

Croisements program (France Culture), August 7, 2011

"France has a problem with the Bible," Thomas Römer once declared. His success at the Collège belies this statement. As does the influence of Christianity on French socialism. France also has a long history with the Chinese tradition. Sinology is a French invention. A chair was created at the Collège in 1814. The fact remains that sacred texts - whether the Bible or Confucius - have to contend with both fundamentalism and trivialized usage. Often instrumentalized in China for political propaganda purposes, often read literally in the West, they urgently need to be interpreted in their historical context. Better still, it's important not to confine them to their cultural area, but to identify the common humanity they conceal.
Understanding the birth of these texts, and measuring their influence, requires a critical eye and an open mind. How can we make these sacred texts speak for themselves?
What do they have to say? Can we escape the wisdom craze? Such is the challenge of this debate..

To read

Cheng A., Histoire de la pensée chinoise, Éditions du Seuil, 1997, 650 p. (awarded the 1997 Prix Stanislas-Julien by the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and the Prix Dagnan-Bouveret by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques).

Cheng A. (dir.), La pensée en Chine aujourd'hui, Gallimard, "Folio Essais", 2007, 478 p.

Römer T., Dieu obscur. Le sexe, la cruauté et la violence dans l'Ancien Testament (Essais Bibliques 27), Geneva, Labor et Fides, 1996, 2nd ed. 1998, 3rd revised and expanded ed. 2009.

Moses, La Découverte.