Customer Reviews:
 A contemporary Jewish view of the Christian apostle Paul May 7, 2007
Jeremy Bevan (West Midlands, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a significant contribution to the debate about Paul's theological aims and intentions, written by a largely sympathetic Jewish scholar. Boyarin sees Paul's project as an attempt to redefine the physical 'marks' of Judaism (circumcision, dietary requirements) as spiritual ones, in order that the faith may become accessible to the whole human race. Circumcision, then, becomes 'circumcision of the heart' - obedience to God's commands as a purely inward disposition, without the need for the external 'sign' that previously distinguished the (male) faithful. Boyarin's approach accounts clearly for Paul's almost complete indifference to the life of Jesus (as opposed to his death and resurrection). However, I think his account leaves Paul's Christianity somewhat abstract and colourless. The final chapter is a reflection on what the 'unhitching' of Judaism from its more 'fixed' religious-cultural symbols might mean for a modern Jew - the author clearly struggles somewhat with the forms of modern Judaism (Zionism, extreme Orthodoxy) that remain all too firmly attached to the visible, and geographical, symbols of faith. It remains to be seen what his notions of a 'diaspora' faith and of Pauline Christianity as universalized Judaism can, together, contribute to the debate about what it means to be Jewish or Christian today.
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