Michael G. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823255108
- eISBN:
- 9780823260850
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823255108.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In his famous theses on the philosophy of history Benjamin writes: “We have been endowed with a weak messianic power to which the past has a claim.” This claim addresses us not just from the past but ...
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In his famous theses on the philosophy of history Benjamin writes: “We have been endowed with a weak messianic power to which the past has a claim.” This claim addresses us not just from the past but from what will have belonged to it only as a missed possibility and unrealized potential. For Benajmin, as for Celan and Derrida, what has never been actualized remains with us, not as a lingering echo but as a secretly insistent appeal. Because such appeals do not pass through normal channels of communication, they require a special attunement, perhaps even a mode of unconscious receptivity. Levine examines the ways in which this attunement is cultivated in Benjamin’s philosophical, autobiographical, and photohistorical writings, Celan’s poetry and poetological addresses, and Derrida’s writings on Celan. Attunement to the unrealized is linked to a particular notion of messianic coming which Benjamin, Celan and Derrida all associate less with a positive moment in time than with a slight opening in it. All three ask what role language--or rather a certain loss of linguistic control--can play in letting time open in this way.Less
In his famous theses on the philosophy of history Benjamin writes: “We have been endowed with a weak messianic power to which the past has a claim.” This claim addresses us not just from the past but from what will have belonged to it only as a missed possibility and unrealized potential. For Benajmin, as for Celan and Derrida, what has never been actualized remains with us, not as a lingering echo but as a secretly insistent appeal. Because such appeals do not pass through normal channels of communication, they require a special attunement, perhaps even a mode of unconscious receptivity. Levine examines the ways in which this attunement is cultivated in Benjamin’s philosophical, autobiographical, and photohistorical writings, Celan’s poetry and poetological addresses, and Derrida’s writings on Celan. Attunement to the unrealized is linked to a particular notion of messianic coming which Benjamin, Celan and Derrida all associate less with a positive moment in time than with a slight opening in it. All three ask what role language--or rather a certain loss of linguistic control--can play in letting time open in this way.
Max Harris
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449567
- eISBN:
- 9780801461613
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449567.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
For centuries, the Feast of Fools has been condemned and occasionally celebrated as a disorderly, even transgressive Christian festival. The problem with this popular account, is that it is wrong. ...
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For centuries, the Feast of Fools has been condemned and occasionally celebrated as a disorderly, even transgressive Christian festival. The problem with this popular account, is that it is wrong. This book rewrites the history of the Feast of Fools, showing that it developed in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries as an elaborate and orderly liturgy for the day of the Circumcision (1 January)—serving as a dignified alternative to rowdy secular New Year festivities. The intent of the feast was not mockery but thanksgiving for the incarnation of Christ. Prescribed role reversals, in which the lower clergy presided over divine office, recalled Mary's joyous affirmation that God “has put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble.” The “fools” represented those chosen by God for their lowly status. The feast was largely confined to cathedrals and collegiate churches in northern France. In the fifteenth century, high-ranking clergy who relied on rumor rather than first-hand knowledge attacked and eventually suppressed the feast. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historians repeatedly misread records of the feast; their erroneous accounts formed a shaky foundation for subsequent understanding of the medieval ritual. By returning to the primary documents, the book reconstructs a Feast of Fools that is all the more remarkable for being sanctified rather than sacrilegious.Less
For centuries, the Feast of Fools has been condemned and occasionally celebrated as a disorderly, even transgressive Christian festival. The problem with this popular account, is that it is wrong. This book rewrites the history of the Feast of Fools, showing that it developed in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries as an elaborate and orderly liturgy for the day of the Circumcision (1 January)—serving as a dignified alternative to rowdy secular New Year festivities. The intent of the feast was not mockery but thanksgiving for the incarnation of Christ. Prescribed role reversals, in which the lower clergy presided over divine office, recalled Mary's joyous affirmation that God “has put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble.” The “fools” represented those chosen by God for their lowly status. The feast was largely confined to cathedrals and collegiate churches in northern France. In the fifteenth century, high-ranking clergy who relied on rumor rather than first-hand knowledge attacked and eventually suppressed the feast. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historians repeatedly misread records of the feast; their erroneous accounts formed a shaky foundation for subsequent understanding of the medieval ritual. By returning to the primary documents, the book reconstructs a Feast of Fools that is all the more remarkable for being sanctified rather than sacrilegious.
Max Harris
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449567
- eISBN:
- 9780801461613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449567.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter examines the subdeacons' offices for the feast of the Circumcision in France and their roles in the early Feasts of Fools. Peter of Corbeil, archbishop of Sens between 1200 and his death ...
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This chapter examines the subdeacons' offices for the feast of the Circumcision in France and their roles in the early Feasts of Fools. Peter of Corbeil, archbishop of Sens between 1200 and his death in 1222, may have been the first to compile a fully prescribed office for the feast of the Circumcision. He was also among those to whom Peter of Capua's complaint was addressed and a signatory to Eudes of Sully's decree. Peter of Corbeil was probably active in drafting the Paris reform. Although comparable Circumcision offices survive from Beauvais and Le Puyen-Velay, along with an office of the Epiphany from Laon, the Sens office was the first to be published in a fully annotated edition with text and music (1907). The Sens office's relative neglect in twentieth-century accounts of the Feast of Fools is thus particularly notable. This chapter discusses the activities of the Laon office of the Epiphany as well as the offices of the Circumcision in Sens, Beauvais, and Le Puy.Less
This chapter examines the subdeacons' offices for the feast of the Circumcision in France and their roles in the early Feasts of Fools. Peter of Corbeil, archbishop of Sens between 1200 and his death in 1222, may have been the first to compile a fully prescribed office for the feast of the Circumcision. He was also among those to whom Peter of Capua's complaint was addressed and a signatory to Eudes of Sully's decree. Peter of Corbeil was probably active in drafting the Paris reform. Although comparable Circumcision offices survive from Beauvais and Le Puyen-Velay, along with an office of the Epiphany from Laon, the Sens office was the first to be published in a fully annotated edition with text and music (1907). The Sens office's relative neglect in twentieth-century accounts of the Feast of Fools is thus particularly notable. This chapter discusses the activities of the Laon office of the Epiphany as well as the offices of the Circumcision in Sens, Beauvais, and Le Puy.
Sander L. Gilman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208272
- eISBN:
- 9789888313129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208272.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Chapter 3, an essay on the politics of circumcision in the contemporary Western Diaspora of Jews and Muslims, frames the debates about religious practice and ideas of health and illness and reflects ...
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Chapter 3, an essay on the politics of circumcision in the contemporary Western Diaspora of Jews and Muslims, frames the debates about religious practice and ideas of health and illness and reflects historical conflicts about religious practices in the Abrahamic religions. The health exception is used to argue for or against what is in its essence a religious practice.Less
Chapter 3, an essay on the politics of circumcision in the contemporary Western Diaspora of Jews and Muslims, frames the debates about religious practice and ideas of health and illness and reflects historical conflicts about religious practices in the Abrahamic religions. The health exception is used to argue for or against what is in its essence a religious practice.
Edward William Lane and Jason Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774165603
- eISBN:
- 9781617975516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165603.003.0027
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter turns to private festivities and celebrations that take place within the family at home. These include marriage (discussed in detail in earlier chapters) and the days that follow, the ...
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This chapter turns to private festivities and celebrations that take place within the family at home. These include marriage (discussed in detail in earlier chapters) and the days that follow, the birth of a child, circumcision of a boy, and the acceptance of a boy into a trade. This chapter looks at the types of entertainment employed—music, singers, and dancers, or Qur’an recitation and zikr—for men and women’s quarters, guests that visit the house or take part in processions, and the different foods and rituals that are observed.Less
This chapter turns to private festivities and celebrations that take place within the family at home. These include marriage (discussed in detail in earlier chapters) and the days that follow, the birth of a child, circumcision of a boy, and the acceptance of a boy into a trade. This chapter looks at the types of entertainment employed—music, singers, and dancers, or Qur’an recitation and zikr—for men and women’s quarters, guests that visit the house or take part in processions, and the different foods and rituals that are observed.
Max Harris
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449567
- eISBN:
- 9780801461613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449567.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter focuses on four French cities where lay and clerical festivities overlapped during Christmas week: Toul, Tournai, Amiens, and Clermont. It first considers Toul's clerical feast of the ...
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This chapter focuses on four French cities where lay and clerical festivities overlapped during Christmas week: Toul, Tournai, Amiens, and Clermont. It first considers Toul's clerical feast of the Innocents that combined indoor liturgies with outdoor cavalcades, plays, and masked parades. It then examines a court case from Tournai, now in Belgium, that illustrates the more turbulent relationship between town and clergy at the feast of the Innocents after the cathedral summarily withdrew its outdoor festive entertainment. It also discusses the peaceful coexistence of the liturgical feast of the Circumcision and the secular feast of the prince of fools in Amiens. Finally, it analyzes the Clermont cathedral chapter's abolition of its Feast of Fools on December 5, 1450.Less
This chapter focuses on four French cities where lay and clerical festivities overlapped during Christmas week: Toul, Tournai, Amiens, and Clermont. It first considers Toul's clerical feast of the Innocents that combined indoor liturgies with outdoor cavalcades, plays, and masked parades. It then examines a court case from Tournai, now in Belgium, that illustrates the more turbulent relationship between town and clergy at the feast of the Innocents after the cathedral summarily withdrew its outdoor festive entertainment. It also discusses the peaceful coexistence of the liturgical feast of the Circumcision and the secular feast of the prince of fools in Amiens. Finally, it analyzes the Clermont cathedral chapter's abolition of its Feast of Fools on December 5, 1450.
Max Harris
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449567
- eISBN:
- 9780801461613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449567.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter examines the “feast of the Ass” as part of the Feast of Fools during the mid-twelfth century. According to Pierre Louvet's account, the feast of the Circumcision was celebrated with an ...
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This chapter examines the “feast of the Ass” as part of the Feast of Fools during the mid-twelfth century. According to Pierre Louvet's account, the feast of the Circumcision was celebrated with an increasingly elaborate liturgy in the third quarter of the twelfth century in a few cities of northern France. In Beauvais, however, a further liturgical innovation was introduced. Before the beginning of first vespers on the eve of the feast, in front of the cathedral's west doors, the choir sang. An ass was then led into the church to the processional chanting of “Orientis partibus,” now known as the song (or prose) of the ass. This chapter considers the processional song of the ass in Beauvais and how the drunken prologue to vespers (or mass) has been associated with the liturgy of the Feast of Fools.Less
This chapter examines the “feast of the Ass” as part of the Feast of Fools during the mid-twelfth century. According to Pierre Louvet's account, the feast of the Circumcision was celebrated with an increasingly elaborate liturgy in the third quarter of the twelfth century in a few cities of northern France. In Beauvais, however, a further liturgical innovation was introduced. Before the beginning of first vespers on the eve of the feast, in front of the cathedral's west doors, the choir sang. An ass was then led into the church to the processional chanting of “Orientis partibus,” now known as the song (or prose) of the ass. This chapter considers the processional song of the ass in Beauvais and how the drunken prologue to vespers (or mass) has been associated with the liturgy of the Feast of Fools.
Michael G. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823255108
- eISBN:
- 9780823260850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823255108.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The chapter examines Derrida’s discussion of passwords and border crossings in Shibboleth: For Paul Celan. As his title suggests, Derrida is concerned with Celan’s relation to – and precarious ...
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The chapter examines Derrida’s discussion of passwords and border crossings in Shibboleth: For Paul Celan. As his title suggests, Derrida is concerned with Celan’s relation to – and precarious situation at -- the frontiers of language. That the negotiation of these carefully patrolled frontiers requires a certain kind of linguistic performance is indicated by his title’s reference to Judges 12 in which those seeking passage across the river Jordan must not only know the difference between shibboleth and sibboleth but be able linguistically to perform it, At stake is not just the linguistic cultivation of the body, the shaping of its organs around the language(s) it has learned to speak, but the sometimes fatal inability of such organs to perform the differences they know and, in doing so, to move beyond a traditional conception of savoir toward a more bodily and culturally conditioned notion of savoir faire. Because it is a question in Celan of a poetic saying that is a doing and, moreover, a doing that, in the Freudian sense of “acting out,” does more than it means or know how to say, the linguistic borders the poet seeks to negotiate are also those between conscious and unconscious speech acts.Less
The chapter examines Derrida’s discussion of passwords and border crossings in Shibboleth: For Paul Celan. As his title suggests, Derrida is concerned with Celan’s relation to – and precarious situation at -- the frontiers of language. That the negotiation of these carefully patrolled frontiers requires a certain kind of linguistic performance is indicated by his title’s reference to Judges 12 in which those seeking passage across the river Jordan must not only know the difference between shibboleth and sibboleth but be able linguistically to perform it, At stake is not just the linguistic cultivation of the body, the shaping of its organs around the language(s) it has learned to speak, but the sometimes fatal inability of such organs to perform the differences they know and, in doing so, to move beyond a traditional conception of savoir toward a more bodily and culturally conditioned notion of savoir faire. Because it is a question in Celan of a poetic saying that is a doing and, moreover, a doing that, in the Freudian sense of “acting out,” does more than it means or know how to say, the linguistic borders the poet seeks to negotiate are also those between conscious and unconscious speech acts.
Michael G. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823255108
- eISBN:
- 9780823260850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823255108.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The chapter continues the reading of Celan’s poem “TO ONE WHO STOOD BEFORE THE DOOR,” shifting the focus from the “tropic of circumcision,” as Derrida calls it, to the figure of Rabbi Löw and the ...
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The chapter continues the reading of Celan’s poem “TO ONE WHO STOOD BEFORE THE DOOR,” shifting the focus from the “tropic of circumcision,” as Derrida calls it, to the figure of Rabbi Löw and the mystical tradition of golemic creation, a creative practice based on a certain performance of the divine Name. Celan conjures this tradition only to alter it from within, basing his own practice no longer on the properness of an unpronounceable Name but rather on a wound that will have gathered in its place. Here again Celan is viewed as a writer who is first and foremost a reader, and what he reads in this particular poem is the gathering wound that will have opened both in the body of the name “Kafka” and in the disease-ridden larynx of the writer. Celan gathers own his poem around this throttling silence in Kafka’s throat, reminding us of the way reading and gathering come together in the German verb lesen. Drawing his poetic reading of Kafka together in this way, Celan opens his language to the untranslatable violence of an unspeakable and irrepressible pain stuck in the throat, a pain that cannot simply be silenced or voiced.Less
The chapter continues the reading of Celan’s poem “TO ONE WHO STOOD BEFORE THE DOOR,” shifting the focus from the “tropic of circumcision,” as Derrida calls it, to the figure of Rabbi Löw and the mystical tradition of golemic creation, a creative practice based on a certain performance of the divine Name. Celan conjures this tradition only to alter it from within, basing his own practice no longer on the properness of an unpronounceable Name but rather on a wound that will have gathered in its place. Here again Celan is viewed as a writer who is first and foremost a reader, and what he reads in this particular poem is the gathering wound that will have opened both in the body of the name “Kafka” and in the disease-ridden larynx of the writer. Celan gathers own his poem around this throttling silence in Kafka’s throat, reminding us of the way reading and gathering come together in the German verb lesen. Drawing his poetic reading of Kafka together in this way, Celan opens his language to the untranslatable violence of an unspeakable and irrepressible pain stuck in the throat, a pain that cannot simply be silenced or voiced.
Elliot R. Wolfson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823255702
- eISBN:
- 9780823260911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823255702.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter analyzes the nexus of secrecy, the gift, and the apophatic in the thought of Derrida. Many scholars have weighed in on these themes, but I will reexamine them from the particular ...
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This chapter analyzes the nexus of secrecy, the gift, and the apophatic in the thought of Derrida. Many scholars have weighed in on these themes, but I will reexamine them from the particular vantagepoint of the relation to Jewish mysticism that one may cull from the Derridean corpus. While my focal point is Derrida's understanding of kabbalah as an expression of polysemy and atheism, the implications of the ensuing analysis should put into sharp relief the theological appropriation of deconstruction attested in any number of theo-philosophies of transcendence that have proliferated in the course of the last few decades, many of them centered especially on the metaphor of the gift. For Derrida, Judaism is not primarily a demarcation of ethno-religious identity, but rather a literary trope that signifies what cannot be signified, the secret that characterizes the way of being human in the world. The secret is not a mystery that is inherently unknowable, but rather the unknowability that issues from there being nothing ontologically or metaphysically that is to be known, the secret that there is no secret. Judaism thus provided Derrida with an existential template by which he could articulate the pretense of the secret, the sense of being in place by having no place. The nexus of secrecy and the gift ensues from the fact that the bestowing of the gift occurs precisely as the impossibility of the gift presenting itself as a gift, an event that is totally heterogeneous to either theoretical or phenomenological identification. For the gift to be a gift, it must be free of economic calculability, but to be so free, neither the one who gives nor the one who receives can be conscious of the giving. The phenomenon of the gift may appear only within the horizon of its absence.Less
This chapter analyzes the nexus of secrecy, the gift, and the apophatic in the thought of Derrida. Many scholars have weighed in on these themes, but I will reexamine them from the particular vantagepoint of the relation to Jewish mysticism that one may cull from the Derridean corpus. While my focal point is Derrida's understanding of kabbalah as an expression of polysemy and atheism, the implications of the ensuing analysis should put into sharp relief the theological appropriation of deconstruction attested in any number of theo-philosophies of transcendence that have proliferated in the course of the last few decades, many of them centered especially on the metaphor of the gift. For Derrida, Judaism is not primarily a demarcation of ethno-religious identity, but rather a literary trope that signifies what cannot be signified, the secret that characterizes the way of being human in the world. The secret is not a mystery that is inherently unknowable, but rather the unknowability that issues from there being nothing ontologically or metaphysically that is to be known, the secret that there is no secret. Judaism thus provided Derrida with an existential template by which he could articulate the pretense of the secret, the sense of being in place by having no place. The nexus of secrecy and the gift ensues from the fact that the bestowing of the gift occurs precisely as the impossibility of the gift presenting itself as a gift, an event that is totally heterogeneous to either theoretical or phenomenological identification. For the gift to be a gift, it must be free of economic calculability, but to be so free, neither the one who gives nor the one who receives can be conscious of the giving. The phenomenon of the gift may appear only within the horizon of its absence.
John J. Collins
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520294110
- eISBN:
- 9780520967366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520294110.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Paul’s attitude to the Law has been endlessly debated. Several scholars have argued in recent years that Paul’s critique of the Law only applied to Gentiles, and that he assumed its continued ...
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Paul’s attitude to the Law has been endlessly debated. Several scholars have argued in recent years that Paul’s critique of the Law only applied to Gentiles, and that he assumed its continued validity for Jews. But in fact Paul claimed to have a new revelation, which superseded the Law for Jews as well as for Gentiles. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision ultimately mattered. Paul may not have objected to continued Jewish observance of the Torah, but he undermined its significance to a great degree. He arguably posed a greater threat to Jewish identity than had Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean era.Less
Paul’s attitude to the Law has been endlessly debated. Several scholars have argued in recent years that Paul’s critique of the Law only applied to Gentiles, and that he assumed its continued validity for Jews. But in fact Paul claimed to have a new revelation, which superseded the Law for Jews as well as for Gentiles. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision ultimately mattered. Paul may not have objected to continued Jewish observance of the Torah, but he undermined its significance to a great degree. He arguably posed a greater threat to Jewish identity than had Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean era.
Ralph Bisschops
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190636647
- eISBN:
- 9780190636678
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190636647.003.0012
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Interpreting sacred notions of the Hebrew Bible in a figurative sense was part of the hermeneutical manoeuvres of Early Christian writers. They proceeded by deliteralisation and metaphorisation. ...
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Interpreting sacred notions of the Hebrew Bible in a figurative sense was part of the hermeneutical manoeuvres of Early Christian writers. They proceeded by deliteralisation and metaphorisation. Paul’s notion of the ‘circumcision of the heart’, which is intimately linked to that of the ‘inner Jew’, was an attempt to internalise Jewish law-abidingness whilst abolishing its initial dignity. The chapter develops a two-phase model behind Paul’s metaphorisations. First the initial values (Jewishness and ritual circumcision) are projected onto a newly created target, namely inwardness. Subsequently, the original value is abolished. This process can be termed a value-shift, in contradistinction to similar instances which should be seen as value-extensions the source value being preserved and merely extended. . Corollaries of value-shift and value-extension are duty-shift and duty-extension. From a socio-religious perspective, metaphorisation goes along with a widening of the religious community. In the last resort, however, it reveals itself to be a moment in the genesis of new theological and even philosophical concepts such as inwardness as the locus of redemption.Less
Interpreting sacred notions of the Hebrew Bible in a figurative sense was part of the hermeneutical manoeuvres of Early Christian writers. They proceeded by deliteralisation and metaphorisation. Paul’s notion of the ‘circumcision of the heart’, which is intimately linked to that of the ‘inner Jew’, was an attempt to internalise Jewish law-abidingness whilst abolishing its initial dignity. The chapter develops a two-phase model behind Paul’s metaphorisations. First the initial values (Jewishness and ritual circumcision) are projected onto a newly created target, namely inwardness. Subsequently, the original value is abolished. This process can be termed a value-shift, in contradistinction to similar instances which should be seen as value-extensions the source value being preserved and merely extended. . Corollaries of value-shift and value-extension are duty-shift and duty-extension. From a socio-religious perspective, metaphorisation goes along with a widening of the religious community. In the last resort, however, it reveals itself to be a moment in the genesis of new theological and even philosophical concepts such as inwardness as the locus of redemption.
Clinton Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780300121827
- eISBN:
- 9780300245639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300121827.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Although almost all Bedouin have followed Islam since early in its history, those who remained nomadic in the deserts of the Middle East found the religion barely accessible to them as an ongoing ...
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Although almost all Bedouin have followed Islam since early in its history, those who remained nomadic in the deserts of the Middle East found the religion barely accessible to them as an ongoing spiritual and psychological support, owing to their distance from Islamic religious instruction and institutions. For such support, they relied instead on primordial, often animistic, practices that had not changed much from the religious behavior of their pre-Islamic ancestors, and which could still be witnessed among pre-modern Bedouin down to the late 20th century. This chapter identifies the similarities between these ancient pre-Islamic religious practices and those of the biblical Israelites, focusing specifically on their common attitudes toward sacrifice, the sacredness of blood, the role of ethics, and respect for taboos, oaths, and vows.Less
Although almost all Bedouin have followed Islam since early in its history, those who remained nomadic in the deserts of the Middle East found the religion barely accessible to them as an ongoing spiritual and psychological support, owing to their distance from Islamic religious instruction and institutions. For such support, they relied instead on primordial, often animistic, practices that had not changed much from the religious behavior of their pre-Islamic ancestors, and which could still be witnessed among pre-modern Bedouin down to the late 20th century. This chapter identifies the similarities between these ancient pre-Islamic religious practices and those of the biblical Israelites, focusing specifically on their common attitudes toward sacrifice, the sacredness of blood, the role of ethics, and respect for taboos, oaths, and vows.
