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A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity

A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity

Daniel Boyarin

A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity

November 11, 1997University of California Press382 pages
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Description

Paul's famous formulation, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, no male and female in Christ," demonstrates the genius of its concern for all people. The genius of Judaism is its validation of genealogy and cultural, ethnic difference. But the evils of these two thought systems are the obverse of their Christianity has threatened to coerce universality, while ethnic difference is one of the most troubled issues in modern history. Boyarin posits a "diaspora identity" as a way to negotiate the pitfalls inherent in either position. Jewishness disrupts categories of identity because it is not national, genealogical, or even religious, but all of these, in dialectical tension with one another. It is analogous with gender identity makes us different in some ways but not in others. An exploration of these tensions in the Pauline corpus, argues Boyarin, will lead us to a richer appreciation of our own cultural quandaries as male and female, gay and straight, Jew and Palestinian―and as human beings.

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