medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have done some work in this area. sermons were preached on the
Circumcision of Jesus. I have an article in the pipeline on a sermon by
Leonardo Dati on the Circumcision given at the Council of Constance in the
early 15th century. That led me to Sentences commentaries. Most of the
commentaries I examined describe Circumcision as a sacrament of the Old Law
superseded by Baptism. Some commentaries also speak of sacraments of the
Natural Law preceding the Covenant of God with the Jews. Of course,
Baptism is described not just as superseding Circumcision but as making it
useless and spiritually dangerous.
Tom Izbicki
At 04:27 PM 12/23/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>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
> >
> >
>**********************************************************************
> > To join the list, send the message: join
> > medieval-religion YOUR NAME
> > to: [log in to unmask]
> > To send a message to the list, address it to:
> > [log in to unmask]
> > To leave the list, send the message: leave
> > medieval-religion
> > to: [log in to unmask]
> > In order to report problems or to contact the list's
> > owners, write to:
> > [log in to unmask]
> > For further information, visit our web site:
> >
>http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
>http://greetings.yahoo.com
>
>**********************************************************************
>To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
>to: [log in to unmask]
>To send a message to the list, address it to:
>[log in to unmask]
>To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
>to: [log in to unmask]
>In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
>[log in to unmask]
>For further information, visit our web site:
>http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
Thomas M. Izbicki
Collection Development Coordinator
Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Telephone: 410-516-7173
Fax: 410-516-8399
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|