Re-Inherit the Wind

The 2025 American Academy of Religion marks a century since The Scopes Trial. The trial’s afterlives, especially its reincarnations as Inherit the Wind, attest to its potency as a vehicle for epistemological, political, and moral critique. The present moment of national and global crises calls for creative re-engagement with Proverbs 11:29, which promises the wise will triumph over the foolish, who will be left with nothing to inherit but the wind. The defense has invited Hochmah, the feminine figure of wisdom who appears throughout the book of Proverbs, to plead the case. "Do you think everything in the Bible should have literal interpretation?" asked Darrow when he put Hochmah on the stand. In her spirit, this dramatic, interactive roundtable  will invite panelists and attendees to Re-Inherit the Wind by bringing Jewish feminist wisdom to bear on the moral crises we now face.