Description
Book SynopsisExplores how Jews, Christians, and Muslims conceptualize 'us' and 'them' through rules about the preparation of food by adherents of other religions and the act of eating with such outsiders. This title illuminates the subtly different ways Jews, Christians, and Muslims perceive themselves.
Trade Review"A very fine study... Freidenreich's book ... is an important contribution that will prove valuable... A fascinating and useful examination." -- Irven M. Resnick H-Net Reviews "His insights into how food helps define our identities is fascinating ... It's impossible to do justice to Freidenreich's explanations." -- Rabbi Rachel Esserman The Reporter Group "[Freidenreich] coveys a meaningful message to all communitites that through dietary laws and restrictions we imagine ourselves and foreigners as others." -- Mehnaz M. Afridi Journal of American Academy of Religion "The summary given [in my review] cannot capture the level of detail and nuance Freidenreich includes in this meticulously researched study... a creative, illuminating, and richly textured history." -- Thomas Devaney Speculum
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Notes on Style and Abbreviations Part I. Introduction: Imagining Otherness 1. Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 2. "A People Made Holy to the LORD": Meals, Meat, and the Nature of Israel's Holiness in the Hebrew Bible Part II. Jewish Sources on Foreign Food Restrictions: Marking Otherness 3. "They Kept Themselves Apart in the Matter of Food": The Nature and Significance of Hellenistic Jewish Food Practices 4. "These Gentile Items Are Prohibited": The Foodstuffs of Foreigners in Early Rabbinic Literature 5. "How Nice Is This Bread!": Intersections of Talmudic Scholasticism and Foreign Food Restrictions Part III. Christian Sources on Foreign Food Restrictions: Defining Otherness 6. "No Distinction between Jew and Greek": The Roles of Food in Defining the Christ-believing Community 7. "Be on Your Guard against Food Offered to Idols": Eidolothuton and Early Christian Identity 8. "How Could Their Food Not Be Impure?": Jewish Food and the Definition of Christianity Part IV. Islamic Sources on Foreign Food Restrictions: Relativizing Otherness 9. "Eat the Permitted and Good Foods God Has Given You": Relativizing Communities in the Qur?an 10. "'Their Food' Means Their Meat": Sunni Discourse on Non-Muslim Acts of Animal Slaughter 11. "Only Monotheists May Be Entrusted with Slaughter": The Targets of Shi?i Foreign Food Restrictions Part V. Comparative Case Studies: Engaging Otherness 12. "Jewish Food": The Implications of Medieval Islamic and Christian Debates about the Definition of Judaism 13. Christians "Adhere to God's Book," but Muslims "Judaize": Islamic and Christian Classifications of One Another 14. "Idolaters Who Do Not Engage in Idolatry": Rabbinic Discourse about Muslims, Christians, and Wine Notes Works Cited Index
