"Literalism” barely has a descriptive content. No one wants to be called “literalistic” because the word is usually associated to religious fundamentalism, conservatism, servile submission and sclerotic approach to the text. This panel aims at challenging this assumption, in exploring different kind of literalism throughout history and among religious traditions. Literalism can have different meanings and functions, and the (religious) letter has paradoxical powers. “Returns” to the letter often had a power of reformation, making the usual Christian distinction between letter and spirit blurry and ineffective. Indeed, reading a text literally implies to give up one’s own anachronistic prejudices about a text (for instance, that the Book of Genesis is historical treaty). But biblicism or literal readings of the Quran, for instance, can also be used to legitimize moral rigorism, political conservatism or anti-rational/scientific attitudes. How can the the letter have such contradictory powers, subversive in one hand, paralyzing in the other hand? We want to investigate and categorize different kinds of literalist readings and different ways for the sacred letter to display its power. This is also a way to challenge any easy distinction between the “inside” and the “outside”: does one have to be “outside” a religion, ie. to relate externally to its text, in order to criticize We aim at embracing different religious traditions but mainly monotheistic traditions with scholars specialized in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Session 1Chair: Noemie Benchimol (EPHE) Speakers: Jean-Sébastien Frédérique Rey (Écritures, Université de Lorraine), The Letters of the Text of the Hebrew Bible David-Isaac Haziza (Columbia University), The culto-mythological interpretation of the Song of Songs as an alternative to the too strong opposition between literalism and non-literalism Amit Shilo (UC Santa Barbara), The Chained Demons of HebrewSession 2Chair: Anthony Feneuil (Université de Lorraine) Speakers: Eszter Kodácsy-Simon (Evangelical-Lutheran Theological University) and Etelka Seresné Busi (Evangelical-Lutheran Theological University), Literal readings amongst young people – findings of an empirical research Noemie Benchimol (EPHE), Formalism as strategic interpretative tool in Talmudic law: the case of judicial oaths Claire Placial (Écritures, Université de Lorraine), La Bible “des écrivains”. The tension between attention to the letter and disruption of theological habitus in a French literary Bible translation Session 3Chair: Noemie Benchimol (EPHE) Speakers: Dimitri Laurent (EHESS-CENJ), The impossible impurity of the text: anthropology and theology Stefan Goltzberg (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Literalism, Law, Judaism and Christianity Miguel Monteiro (Yale University), Narrative Theology and Exegetical Authority in Theodore Abu Qurrah’s “Treatise on the Existence of the Creator and True Religion”