neocarnality/differentrace/parents/country/estates



*~*~*



'there is
no jew nor
greek'
[paolos]:



"Toward
a Radical
Jewishness"
[Danny]



Throughout
these myDistories
I have been arguing
that Paul's writing poses
a significant challenge
to Jewish notions
of identity ~
I have
suggested
that Paul was impelled
by a vision of human unity
that was born of
two parents:


Hebrew
monotheism
& Greek
longing
for universals.


As
I have argued,
however, and will pursue further,
Paul's universalism seems to conduce
to coercive politico-cultural systems
that engage in more or less
violent projects of the absorption
of cultural specificities
into the dominant
ONE.


-


YET
Jews cannot ignore
the force of Paul's critique
just because ot its negative effects,
for uncritical devotion to ethnic particularity has equally
negative effects.


-


THUS,
while Jewish discourse
both limits its claims to hegemony to what is,
after all, a tiny piece of land [in contrast to the whole world staked out by "Christendom"] and, moreover, does not consider
conversion of others a desideratum or a
requirement for their "salvation,"
modern Jewish statist nationalism has nevertheless been very violent and
exclusionary in its practices vis-a-vis its others,
and traditional Judaism was often offensively contemptuous
toward them.



~*~



ON
the political or ethical level, then,
PAUL presented [and presents] Jews with a set of powerful questions
that cannot be
ignored.


-


Echoing A.S.,
I claim that Paul's letters
are addressed
to US -
to me,
as a [post]modern Jew:
I will try
to conclude these "myDistories",
then,
with a more highly personal
and engaged,
perhaps not always completely satisfactory, attempt
to answer Paul's letters
to ME.


-


HOW
can I ethically construct a particular identity
which is extremely precious to me without falling into ethnocentrism or racism of one kind or
another?


-


This
is particularly poignant since,
as we shall probably see, the latter are protean and can disguise
themselves in many
forms?!


-


In
these next
few mydistories,
I will try to significantly change my tone and focus:
the effort of these 'final conclusions' is
to articulate ONE individual notion
of Jewishness
- and by analogy, other forms of particular identity -
that will attempt to answer
the challenge of Paul's letters
to enroll and commit to
a universal human
solidarity as
well!

~cool!verliefdcool!~
engel
26 aug 2005 - bewerkt op 21 mrt 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 81 jaar
   
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