Authors: Howard Eilberg-Schwartz
ISBN-13: 9780807012253, ISBN-10: 0807012254
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Beacon
Date Published: December 1995
Edition: 1st Edition
God's Phallus explores the dilemmas created by the maleness of God for the men of ancient Judaism and for Jewish men today.
In recent years, feminists have argued that male images of God in the biblical religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have served to diminish the power of women within these faiths. Yet, while such conversations have focused primarily on gender and the traits of masculinity, little attention has been paid to male sexuality itself or to the problems it engenders for men. Eilberg-Schwartz here opens that issue, contending that making God in a man's sexual image either requires the feminization of the man or implies a homoerotic relationship between father and son. Through a detailed study of the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud and Freud, the author demonstrates the tensions latent in any tradition within which men must engage the image of God's phallus. Eilberg-Schwartz brings to this study a rich experience of writing about both the body and Judaism, and readers will be greatly rewarded by his careful scholarship and crisp writing. While the book challenges feminist assertions about gender and religion, it is a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation about the centrality of sexuality to religion. (Aug.)
Acknowledgments | ||
Abbreviations | ||
Introduction: The Divine Phallus and the Dilemmas of Masculinity | 1 | |
Pt. I | Divine Fatherhood | |
Ch. 1 | Feminism, Freud, and the Father God | 13 |
Ch. 2 | Analytic Phallusies | 30 |
Pt. II | God's Body: The Divine Cover-Up | |
Ch. 3 | The Averted Gaze | 59 |
Ch. 4 | Indecent Exposures | 81 |
Ch. 5 | Genital Speculation | 110 |
Pt. III | For the Love of God | |
Ch. 6 | Unmanning Israel | 137 |
Ch. 7 | Women Rabbis and the Orchard of Heavenly Delights | 163 |
Pt. IV | Like Father, Like Sons? | |
Ch. 8 | A Sexless Father and His Procreating Sons | 199 |
Ch. 9 | The Virgin Birth and the Sons of God | 223 |
Conclusion: Embracing Our Fathers: Theological Musings of a Son | 238 | |
Notes | 243 | |
References | 281 | |
Index | 305 |