Reviews for Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism

The average rating for Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-02-26 00:00:00 Larry Dian In this book, Adams analyzes Jewish sapiential literature with an aim to demonstrate that, over time, the emphasis on death and the afterlife shifted, from a view of an honorable life leading to the finality of sheol, to the eschatological promise of a flourishing afterlife. His focus is primarily Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ben Sira, and 4QInstruction, with 4QInstruction serving as the result of the ongoing shifts leading up to its composition. These shifts led, Adams argues, to an "eschatologizing" of the wisdom tradition, where inheritance was no longer about this-worldly material land and goods, but about entering into life after death. For the most part, I found Adams' arguments to be well-reasoned and convincing. I had just two reserves. First, Adams follows the majority towards a deterministic and dualistic view of 4QInstruction (though he qualifies this more fairly than most interpreters, by arguing that the elect class must maintain their status, and that the determinism is not "rigid"), but I think there are good reasons to side with Wold (who Adams argues against), that wisdom in the book is offered to all universally, and that those with the "fleshly spirit" are those who do not follow wisdom's path. There are connections to be made with 1 Enoch 1-5 and Romans 1 that would argue in this direction. Second, Adams makes use at times of 1 Enoch, but does not give the book sustained attention. This is likely due to the fact that 1 Enoch is often not regarded as a sapiential text, but the fact that it is an apocalyptic text with so much sapiential resonance is what makes it a compelling addition to the transition (merger?) of eschatologically focused wisdom texts. Whether a book is apocalyptic with sapiential elements, or sapiential with apocalyptic elements, is all debatable, but 1 Enoch and 4QInstruction are clearly (in my view anyway) two books contributing to the same stream/transition of these dynamics in Jewish literature. More comparative analysis with 1 Enoch would have been insightful. Overall, I found the book to be well argued and well written, and a helpful contribution to transitions of thought in the Second Temple period.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-30 00:00:00 Thomas O'finnegan Some incredibly productive theses that, if they were the foundation of a new Jewishness, would end up being something really special. But, the book is a bit mired in its obsession with Freud and Freudian discourses ' I get why examining this stuff is helpful in making the book's principle argument, but it's just not as engaging as the stuff on Herzl and the Talmud. (The chapters on the Talmud are a particular treat, showing how much gets erased and how Westernized modern conceptions of Jewish faith are.) Read for thesis