Form & Foreskin

Form & Foreskin PDF Author: A W Strouse
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823294765
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Why did Saint Augustine ask God to “circumcise [his] lips”? Why does Sir Gawain cut off the Green Knight’s head on the Feast of the Circumcision? Is Chaucer’s Wife of Bath actually—as an early glossator figures her—a foreskin? And why did Ezra Pound claim that he had incubated The Waste Land inside of his uncut member? In this little book, A. W. Strouse excavates a poetics of the foreskin, uncovering how Patristic theologies of circumcision came to structure medieval European literary aesthetics. Following the writings of Saint Paul, “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” become key terms for theorizing language—especially the dichotomies between the mere text and its extended exegesis, between brevity and longwindedness, between wisdom and folly. Form and Foreskin looks to three works: a peculiar story by Saint Augustine about a boy with the long foreskin; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. By examining literary scenes of cutting and stretching, Strouse exposes how Patristic treatments of circumcision queerly govern medieval poetics.

Form & Foreskin

Form & Foreskin PDF Author: A W Strouse
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823294765
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Why did Saint Augustine ask God to “circumcise [his] lips”? Why does Sir Gawain cut off the Green Knight’s head on the Feast of the Circumcision? Is Chaucer’s Wife of Bath actually—as an early glossator figures her—a foreskin? And why did Ezra Pound claim that he had incubated The Waste Land inside of his uncut member? In this little book, A. W. Strouse excavates a poetics of the foreskin, uncovering how Patristic theologies of circumcision came to structure medieval European literary aesthetics. Following the writings of Saint Paul, “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” become key terms for theorizing language—especially the dichotomies between the mere text and its extended exegesis, between brevity and longwindedness, between wisdom and folly. Form and Foreskin looks to three works: a peculiar story by Saint Augustine about a boy with the long foreskin; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. By examining literary scenes of cutting and stretching, Strouse exposes how Patristic treatments of circumcision queerly govern medieval poetics.

Form and Foreskin

Form and Foreskin PDF Author: A. W. Strouse
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823294773
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Why did Saint Augustine ask God to “circumcise [his] lips”? Why does Sir Gawain cut off the Green Knight’s head on the Feast of the Circumcision? Is Chaucer’s Wife of Bath actually—as an early glossator figures her—a foreskin? And why did Ezra Pound claim that he had incubated The Waste Land inside of his uncut member? In this little book, A. W. Strouse excavates a poetics of the foreskin, uncovering how Patristic theologies of circumcision came to structure medieval European literary aesthetics. Following the writings of Saint Paul, “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” become key terms for theorizing language—especially the dichotomies between the mere text and its extended exegesis, between brevity and longwindedness, between wisdom and folly. Form and Foreskin looks to three works: a peculiar story by Saint Augustine about a boy with the long foreskin; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. By examining literary scenes of cutting and stretching, Strouse exposes how Patristic treatments of circumcision queerly govern medieval poetics.

A Surgical Temptation

A Surgical Temptation PDF Author: Robert Darby
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022610978X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
In the eighteenth century, the Western world viewed circumcision as an embarrassing disfigurement peculiar to Jews. A century later, British doctors urged parents to circumcise their sons as a routine precaution against every imaginable sexual dysfunction, from syphilis and phimosis to masturbation and bed-wetting. Thirty years later the procedure again came under hostile scrutiny, culminating in its disappearance during the 1960s. Why Britain adopted a practice it had traditionally abhorred and then abandoned it after only two generations is the subject of A Surgical Temptation. Robert Darby reveals that circumcision has always been related to the question of how to control male sexuality. This study explores the process by which the male genitals, and the foreskin especially, were pathologized, while offering glimpses into the lives of such figures as James Boswell, John Maynard Keynes, and W. H. Auden. Examining the development of knowledge about genital anatomy, concepts of health, sexual morality, the rise of the medical profession, and the nature of disease, Darby shows how these factors transformed attitudes toward the male body and its management and played a vital role in the emergence of modern medicine.

Circumcision Scar

Circumcision Scar PDF Author: Jay J. Jackson
Publisher: Hookona
ISBN: 1734555807
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Read this blistering exposé into history's most loathed body part. Did you know amputated foreskins are sold to cosmetic companies for $100,000, or that circumcision was alleged to cure brain tumors? It also has a history of megalomania – doctors believed it would cure black men of their predisposition to be rapists, and the more children they circumcised, the higher they’d ascend to god. Most parents circumcise their sons without giving it a second thought. They have no clue what the risks are because doctors never offer "informed consent" - the legal obligation to educate patients on the risks and alleged benefits of any procedure so they understand what's being asked of them. Circumcision facts doctors never tell parents: · Circumcision can permanently change your son’s temperament. · Circumcision reduces penis sensitivity and causes erectile dysfunction. · Circumcision can result in amputation, disfigurement, or death. · Your newborn son will be given an erection to facilitate the procedure. · Circumcision has no genuine health benefits. · America has one of the highest HIV rates in the world despite circumcision. Your body your choice - His body your preference? Love your son as he was born to be, not for who you force him to be. Jay J. Jackson offers an unflinching glimpse into the debilitating mindset of circumcision related sexual trauma - the same debilitating mindset experienced by all victims of sexual violence. He details his personal experiences with foreskin restoration, medical abuse, and the shocking history behind how circumcision became commonplace in America. THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY: After suffering an unrelated trauma at the age of 1, Jay experienced parallel memories that caused him to discern he'd been in two separate hospital settings as an infant, and his inability to reconcile these conflicting memories became the impetus behind his lifelong struggle. As an adult, Jay sought treatment for erectile dysfunction only to be chased out of multiple doctor's offices that branded him immoral and perverse for suggesting circumcision is harmful. Abandoned by traditional medicine, Jay ultimately found a cosmetic surgeon willing to help and he endured 2 experimental surgeries to reverse the damage his circumcision caused. In his 50’s, Jay suddenly realized his recurring nightmares were repressed memories of his neonatal circumcision, which became the impetus for writing this book. "I drew the picture on the back cover in the first grade. It's me in bed having another nightmare, surrounded by my family who were angry that I’d disturbed them again. I was in my 50’s when I finally understood I was having recurring nightmares about my neonatal circumcision. Please don't do this to your son." Jay J. Jackson “...a powerful and moving narrative of suffering and recuperation. This unflinching memoir could be a valuable resource for readers researching the negative effects of circumcision.” - BookLife Reviews ”Jackson’s honesty provides a new way of looking at a practice that is rarely discussed. In the end, this intriguing subject is not only brought to light, but also done so in an impassioned way.” - Kirkus Reviews Contents:  i) Preface 1) Introduction 2) How will your son learn he’s been circumcised? 3) Early Restoration Techniques 4) Attack of the Urologists 5) Foreskin Restoration Surgery 6) Embracing Denial 7) Circumcising Our Imaginary Baby 8) The Final Stretch 9) Faux Foreskin 10) The Prepuce Police 11) How I Remembered My Neonatal Circumcision 12) An Apatheist in a Dogmatic World 13) Cult or Culture? 14) Christian American Doctors Hijack Circumcision 15) Foreskin Fascist 16) The Church of Medicine 17) Side Effects May Include 18) Modern Intactivism Footnotes

Foreskin's Lament

Foreskin's Lament PDF Author: Shalom Auslander
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101217634
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book, and a “chaotic, laugh riot” (San Francisco Chronicle) of a memoir. Shalom Auslander was raised with a terrified respect for God. Even as he grew up and was estranged from his community, his religion and its traditions, he could not find the path to a life where he didn’t struggle daily with the fear of God’s formidable wrath. Foreskin’s Lament reveals Auslander’s “painfully, cripplingly, incurably, miserably religious” youth in a strict, socially isolated Orthodox Jewish community, and recounts his rebellion and efforts to make a new life apart from it. His combination of unrelenting humor and anger renders a rich and fascinating portrait of a man grappling with his faith and family.

Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery

Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery PDF Author: David Gollaher
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 9780465026531
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How has a medical practice that carries substantial risk to the patient and offers very little actual benefit become so widely accepted by parents and fiercely advocated by the medical community? Historian of medicine David Gollaher tells the strange history of medicine's oldest enigma and most persistent ritual in Circumcision. From the extraordinarily painful initiation rite of the ancient Egyptians, through the Hebrew purification ritual, through circumcision's use by the rising medical community in the nineteenth century as prevention for ailments ranging from bedwetting to paralysis, the great mystery has been the persistence of the practice through vastly different social contexts.

Marked in Your Flesh

Marked in Your Flesh PDF Author: Leonard B. Glick
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199884234
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 618

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Book Description
The book of Genesis tells us that God made a covenant with Abraham, promising him a glorious posterity on the condition that he and all his male descendents must be circumcised. For thousands of years thereafter, the distinctive practice of circumcision served to set the Jews apart from their neighbors. The apostle Paul rejected it as a worthless practice, emblematic of Judaism's fixation on physical matters. Christian theologians followed his lead, arguing that whereas Christians sought spiritual fulfillment, Jews remained mired in such pointless concerns as diet and circumcision. As time went on, Europeans developed folklore about malicious Jews who performed sacrificial murders of Christian children and delighted in genital mutilation. But Jews held unwaveringly to the belief that being a Jewish male meant being physically circumcised and to this day even most non-observant Jews continue to follow this practice. In this book, Leonard B. Glick offers a history of Jewish and Christian beliefs about circumcision from its ancient origins to the current controversy. By the turn of the century, more and more physicians in America and England--but not, interestingly, in continental Europe--were performing the procedure routinely. Glick shows that Jewish American physicians were and continue to be especially vocal and influential champions of the practice which, he notes, serves to erase the visible difference between Jewish and gentile males. Informed medical opinion is now unanimous that circumcision confers no benefit and the practice has declined. In Jewish circles it is virtually taboo to question circumcision, but Glick does not flinch from asking whether this procedure should continue to be the defining feature of modern Jewish identity.

From Abraham to America

From Abraham to America PDF Author: Eric Kline Silverman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742516694
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Silverman's new book is a comprehensive overview of Jewish circumcision throughout history. Beginning with Genesis, the author traces paradoxes and tensions in biblical-Jewish circumcision as seen both within Judaism and from the dominant, non-Jewish culture, and ends with the current debate over Jewish and routine medical circumcision in America. This book is essential reading in Jewish studies, medical sociology, and Judaic studies/theology.

One Hundred Philistine Foreskins

One Hundred Philistine Foreskins PDF Author: Tova Reich
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1619022044
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
One Hundred Philistine Foreskins centers on the life of Temima Ba'alatOv, known also as Ima Temima, or Mother Temima, a charismatic woman rabbi of extraordinary spiritual power and learning, and an utterly original interpreter of the Hebrew Bible. Temima is revered as a guru with prophetic, even messianic powers—one who dares to raise her woman's "naked" voice even in the face of extreme hostility by the traditional establishment. Moving between two worlds—Temima as a child in Brooklyn and Temima as an adult in Jerusalem—the story reveals the forces that shaped her, including the early loss of her mother; her spiritual and intellectual awakening; her complex relationship with her father, a ritual slaughterer; her forced marriage; her "ascent" to Israel; and her intense romantic involvements with charismatic men who launch her toward her destiny as a renowned woman leader in Israel. True to Reich's voice as a satirist of humanity's darker inclinations, the story is rooted in contemporary times, revealing the extreme and ecstatic expressions of religion, as well as the power of religion and religious authorities to use and abuse the faithful, both spiritually and physically, with life–altering and crushing consequences. Cynthia Ozick said of Tova Reich that her "verbal blade is amazingly, ingeniously, startlingly, all–consumingly, all–encompassingly, deservedly, and brilliantly savage." This has never been more true than in One Hundred Philistine Foreskins, a work of literature sure to be hailed as an immensely authoritative and fearlessly bold tour–de–force.

The Apostle to the Foreskin

The Apostle to the Foreskin PDF Author: Ryan D. Collman
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110981726
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This volume offers a comprehensive examination of circumcision and foreskin in the undisputed Pauline epistles. Historically, Paul's discourse on circumcision has been read through the lens of Paul's supposed abandonment of Judaism and conversion to 'Christianity.' Recent scholarship on Paul, however, has challenged the idea that Paul ever abandoned Judaism. In the context of this revisionist reading of Paul, Ryan Collman argues that Paul never repudiates, redefines, or replaces circumcision. Rather, Paul's discourse on circumcision (and foreskin) is shaped by his understanding of ethnicity and his bifurcation of humanity into the categories of Jews and the nations—the circumcision and the foreskin. Collman argues that Paul does not deny the continuing validity (and importance) of circumcision for Jewish followers of Jesus, but categorically refuses that gentile believers can undergo circumcision. By reading this language in its historical, rhetorical, epistolary, and ethnic contexts, Collman offers a number of new readings of difficult Pauline texts (e.g., Rom 4:9–12; Gal 5:1–4; Phil 3:2–3).