Description
Book SynopsisThis text takes the reader through the Hebrew Bible to examine ancient Israel's ideas of the body, the unstable role of gender, the deployment of sexuality and the cultural practices of the time. It looks at the logic of ancient social meanings and contrasts them with contemporary social theory.
Trade ReviewThis book is a significant contribution to contemporary Christian theology. * Reviews in Religion and Theology *
Jon Berquist's thesis is strikingly original and a significant contribution to the field. He sifts carefully through an impressive range of materials so that the ubiquity of the social system emerges with clarity and force. Hence, the reader is provided with an inner logic to ancient social meanings. -- David M. Gunn * A. A. Bradford Professor of Religion, Texas Christian University *
Using the human body as the lens for his examination, Berquist has uncovered some very interesting characteristics of ancient Israelite society. While serious Bible students will find this carefully researched study quite enlightening, it is written in a way that even the nonprofessional will find interesting. * Bible Today *
Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Whole Body: Israelite Perceptions of Corporeal Existence
2. Sexuality and Fertility: Constructing the Household of the Body
3. Boundaries of the Body: Sexuality outside the Household
4. The Stages of the Body: Constructions of the Aging Process
5. Foreign Bodies: Reactions against the Stranger
6. The Body of the Temple: Priests and the Religious Regulation of the Body
7. Intercourse with the World: Hellenism and the Incorporation of Judaism
Notes
References
Subject Index
Index of Biblical Citations
