Carnal Israel

No doubt I am not in a great position to judge this book, since its topic is well outside my area of expertise, but I nonetheless found it fascinating in parts and dull in others. The fascinating elements of the book were twofold.

The first lies in the book's central thesis, which looks at how the Jewish/Christian strand of thought which borrow from the Greek, platonic tradition led to a privilege of mind over body, whereas the Rabbinical tradition of late antiquity, as both a philosophical and political move, tended to maintain the importance of the body and sexuality.

In part, Boyarin admits, there were for tribal, even xenophobic reasons, for this emphasis on carnality, but they nonetheless formed an important point of difference and show more an implicit critique of the Christian view that became dominant. In subsequent chapters, therefore, he traces how this focus on the body played out in questions of theology, sexuality, gender, and even the study of the Talmud (since the last was explicitly forbidden to women).

The second aspect of this book that I liked was Boyarin's nuanced historical approach. He is very precise and balanced in how he presents his topic, pointing out at various points the temptation to simplify into black and white discourses of "good" and "bad," especially in line with modern political values about the body and feminism.

For me, the book started out strongly, but the argument in the second half seemed to get wrapped up in technicalities that are only importance or relevant to scholars of Jewish history. Then again, perhaps that is to be expected - after all, as I said at the beginning, I am no expert in this area. show less