medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear John,
I am no expert on these matters! However several
points come to mind: the Church celebrated the
Circumcision of Jesus for a very long time. I confess
ignorance of the "a quo" of the feast, but "Mary
Mother of God" replaced the Feast of the Circumcision
fairly recently. (Don't ask me to plumb the depths of
Vatican II thinking!) And of course, we've all
snickered at the proliferation of relics of the
operation. The circumcision of the Lord is prominently
mentioned in the Gospels as are other details of
Jesus' family's careful observance of Jewish law.
As for questions regarding the hygienic benefits of
the surgery, there are people who question the
benefits of just about everything. (Pardon the
straying from medieval religion, but just try
disentangling the pros and cons of hormone replacement
therapy.)
I have had the perhaps naive belief that much of the
dietary law and the like in the OT was rooted in
simple observance of what was good for one and what
was not, e.g. the sweeping out of "old" yeast, etc. I
find it difficult to believe that mixing milk and meat
was really a moral issue. (I do apologize if my
reaction to OT dietary law is offensive to Jewish
members of the list.)
I'm sure my response is unsatisfactory and uninformed,
but I'm equally certain that others will fill in the
gaps.
Best wishes of the season,
MG
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
> Dear Elena Lemeneva, Marjorie Greene and Luciana
> Cuppo Csaki: Am I
> wrong or did I not learn that circumcision of males
> was considered by
> the Greeks and Romans as mutilation? And that it
> was one of the
> various cuttings of the human body anciently
> characteristic of
> Middle Eastern and African regions, practices that
> included those
> performed on women's bodies?
>
> As I looked at the texts provided by Luciana, also,
> I was
> struck by a memory of Abelard's comments (put in the
> mouth of his
> Jewish spokesman)in the famous Dialogue about the
> "materialism" of
> Jewish belief and its spiritualization by
> Christians. Obviously a
> big polemical theme.
>
> Lastly, has not the physical health benefit of such
> cuttings
> been questioned in modern times? And was there ever
> a theme of
> that kind in medieval or ancient medical polemic?
>
> Yours, John Mundy
>
>
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