This summer I read bell hooks Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of Freedom. I was captured by the title. It reminds me of a stream in the Isaiah tradition. This semester the Hebrew Reading the Book of Isaiah at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University will examine text that represent an invitation of the readers to transgress the boundaries that the world of Isaiah took for granted.
According to Merriam Webster the verb transgress as an intransitive verb means to violate a command or law or to go beyond a boundary or limit. The verb can also be transitive to go beyond limits or prescribed by and to pass beyond or go over. This Middle English term is taken from the Middle French transgresser, which is from the Latin transgressus, past participle of transgredi. Trans+gredi to step. The first known occurrence comes from the 15th century.
When we consider the priestly prophetic vocation we often focus on how these institutions set boundaries. However, the task of the priest/prophet includes the trangressive move as much as establishing boundaries. IN fact, one might posit that the boundaries that organize us derive from transgressive acts that were then “normed.”
Julia O’Brien in a provocative way Challenging Prophetic Metaphor invites the reader to think about the transgressive dimension embedded in the prophetic biblical books.
If we go back to the subtitle of Teaching to Transgress we recognize that transgression is part and parcel of freedom practices. We are going to start with an examination of Isaiah 6 and the call of Isaiah.