Tuesday, September 28, 2004
(8:56 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Justin T-Shirts Now Available (Updated with further selling out)
Here. And if you see Justin, don't mention this. I want it to be a surprise.UPDATE: And just to be annoying, I have signed up for the Amazon Associates program. If you think of it, please use the search box under the "Unapologetic Tackiness," because a portion of the proceeds will go to me. Again, we're dealing with burrito-level sums here, but it seems worth the trouble.
A book that I read early this summer and now feel I need to re-read for Ted's Romans class is this:
That's The Political Theology of Paul by Jacob Taubes for those using lynx. It is truly a tour-de-force -- not only does he situate Paul's discourse on the Jews in Romans 9-11 in the Jewish liturgical tradition in an unprecedented way, but his account of Paul's influence on Nietzsche and Freud (influence in an extreme "anxiety of influence" way) is brilliant. I also eventually plan to read this:
That's A Radical Jew by Daniel Boyarin. I know Boyarin for his article on homosexuality in Leviticus, and I'm eager to have his take on Paul. Finally, though, what I'm reading right this moment that is fucking me up worst (other than Barth's Romans) is this:
A Rereading of Romans by Stanley Stower has seriously reworked my understanding of Paul's letter and his rhetoric. I had previously been skeptical of the term "rhetoric" in New Testament studies, because it appeared to be a term that people simply deployed as either: (a) a way of claiming that the reading I was proposing was impossible (without ever offering anything positive or explaining what the "rhetoric" is in a given passage) or (b) a magical way of making the passage mean whatever the speaker wants it to mean. Among the many rhetorical revelations Stower proposes is that Paul sometimes uses a dialogical form similar to that of Plato -- the passages where he identifies this technique and divides it into a dialogue suddenly become much clearer and (if you'll forgive my snobbery) I am much more impressed with Paul since he is using a technique that Plato uses. Stower's use of ancient exegetes such as Origen is also very skilled -- he mines them for their knowledge as native speakers of ancient Greeks while avoiding the pitfalls of following them when they are simply trying to read their own theology into Paul.
My book recommendations are sincere, but a big part of this post was just testing out the new Amazon link thing. I will probably include such a link whenever I discuss a book, but I promise never to write a post simply because I want to promote a book and get people to buy it -- mostly because I know that would never work, because all you people are poor.
