In Race: A Theological Account; J. Kameron Carter meditates on the multiple legacies implicated in the production of a racialized world and that still mark how we function in it and think about ourselves. These are the legacies of colonialism and empire; political theories of the state; anthropological theories of the human; and philosophy itself; from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to the present. Carter's claim is that Christian theology; and the signal transformation it (along with Christianity) underwent; is at the heart of these legacies. In that transformation; Christian anti-Judaism biologized itself so as to racialize itself. As a result; and with the legitimation of Christian theology; Christianity became the cultural property of the West; the religious ground of white supremacy and global hegemony. In short; Christianity became white. The racial imagination is thus a particular kind of theological problem. Not content only to describe this problem; Carter constructs a way forward for Christian theology. Through engagement with figures as disparate in outlook and as varied across the historical landscape as Immanuel Kant; Frederick Douglass; Jarena Lee; Michel Foucault; Cornel West; Albert Raboteau; Charles Long; James Cone; Irenaeus of Lyons; Gregory of Nyssa; and Maximus the Confessor; Carter reorients the whole of Christian theology; bringing it into the twenty-first century. Neither a simple reiteration of Black Theology nor another expression of the new theological orthodoxies; this groundbreaking book will be a major contribution to contemporary Christian theology; with ramifications in other areas of the humanities.
#3531063 in Books Martin S Jaffee 2001-04-19Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.10 x 1.10 x 6.20l; 1.12 #File Name: 0195140672356 pagesTorah in the Mouth Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism 200 BCE 400 CE
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Inpressive book on the oral TorahBy JeriJaffee's book is notable for the sheer breadth of his scholarship.One of the more perplexing problems in the study of ancient cultures is the fact that most data was passed on orally. This is especially true for the Jews. Fishbane; and others; have argued that all of the Hebrew Scriptures testify to "manifold ways in which texts committed to manuscript were shaped by their passage through the prism of orally mediated ...tradition" (p 29).By the Second Temple period; famously; Josephus stated that oral scriptures were considered as binding as written scripture for the majority of Jews (Antiquities 10.2.1 XIII;297). Also Philo (-10.2.2 The Special Laws IV 143-150); as well as perhaps Qumran.Naturally; these statements bring on a flood of questions. How were the oral traditions passed on? How accurately were they passed on? Who taught them? Were there schools? Frustratingly; we can only study traces that remain in the scriptures and try to deduce from there.Oral traditions formed the basis for culture through the ancient Greco-Roman world. Rote memorization was standard practice of education across the ancient world; and; in fact; it formed the basis for all education--much more than literacy. It was how culture was passed on.Jaffee argues that the rabbinic culture retained orality in a way that was "thoroughly 'literate'; and indeed; 'literary'" (p 124); however difficult a concept that is for moderns to grasp.The first "allusion to the existence of scribal schools in Jerusalem comes from the...second century BC in the writings of...ben Sira" (p 20) although actual data about schooling from the Second Temple period remains pitifully scant. (Side note: Price and Isaac of Tel Aviv University are about to release 12;000 graffiti inscriptions which may change all our knowledge on the subject.)Recent scholarship argues that the rabbinic movement in Roman Galilee "bore important functional similarities" (p 129) to rhetorical or philosophical Greco-Roman education. Jaffee shows that the written texts of rabbinic tradition was widespread.The halakhic teachings of the sage or rabbi continued on in the knowledge and practice of his students. "The primary goal of...study was not merely to master knowledge discursively. Rather; it was to be transformed by what one possessed (p 147).
