Title: Marked in your flesh : circumcision from ancient Judea to modern America /
Authors: Glick, Leonard B.
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Judaism History; Circumcision Religious aspects Judaism; Circumcision History.; Judaism Relations Christianity; Jewish physicians Germany History.; Medicine United States History; Medicine England History.; Circumcision, Male history; Judaism history
Abstract: "Leonard B. Glick traces the history of infant circumcision from its origins in ancient Judea, through centuries of Christian condemnation and Jewish defense, to its current role in American culture and medical practice. A chapter of the book of Genesis, composed by priests around 500 B.C.E., says that God made a covenant with Abraham, promising him a glorious posterity on condition that he and all his male descendants be circumcised. Eventually the practice of infant male circumcision would become a key element in the separation between Judaism and Christianity. While Christians rejected circumcision as spiritually irrelevant, Jews held unwaveringly to the belief that being a Jewish male meant being physically circumcised." "Informed medical opinion is still divided, but most physicians now agree that circumcision confers no significant medical benefits; yet the practice is still routine in most American hospitals. At the same time, determined opposition has grown among those who recognize its significant adverse effects and the ethical and legal implications of imposing reductive surgery on the genitals of nonconsenting persons. Moreover, Jewish opponents maintain that this disfiguring practice makes no positive contribution to modern Jewish American life."--Jacket.
Contents: "This is my covenant": circumcision in the world of Temple Judaism -- "Great is circumcision": Christian condemnation, Jewish veneration -- "Offering incense to heaven": Jewish circumcision in medieval and early modern Europe -- "The height of foulness": circumcision in European religious and popular culture -- "Trembling of the hands": radical changes in a pivotal century -- Good sanitarians: circumcision medicalized -- "This little operation": Jewish American physicians and twentieth-century circumcision advocacy -- Unanswerable questions, questionable answers: justifying ritual circumcision -- "Deep feelings of nervousness": circumnavigating the taboo topic.