Dr. Daniel Hillel, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies
University of Massachusetts
Wednesday, March 22 at 6:00 p.m.(seminar and light dinner)
The Bildner Center, 12 College Avenue
Please RSVP by March 20 to csjlrsvp@rci.rutgers.edu or call 732-932-2033.
Daniel Hillel is also a senior research scientist, Center for Climate Systems
Research, Columbia University. He is the author or editor of more than twenty
books, including Negev: Land, Water, and Life in a Desert Environment; Out of
the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil; and Rivers of Eden: The
Struggle for Water and the Quest for Peace in the Middle East.
About the Book:
The Natural History of the Bible:
An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew
Scriptures
Traversing river valleys, steppes, deserts, rain-fed forests, farmlands, and
seacoasts, the early Israelites experienced all the contrasting ecological
domains of the ancient Near East. As they grew from a nomadic clan to become a
nation-state in Canaan, they interacted with indigenous societies of the region,
absorbed selective elements of their cultures, and integrated them into a
radically new culture of their own. Daniel Hillel reveals the interplay between
the culture of the Israelites and the environments within which it evolved. More
than just affecting their material existence, the region's ecology influenced
their views of creation and the creator, their conception of humanity's role on
Earth, their own distinctive identity and destiny, and their ethics.
Dr. Hillel’s book will be available for purchase at the Rutgers University
Bookstore.
For more information about the book, please see:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023113/0231133626.HTM
