Ebook: The sensual God : how the senses make the almighty senseless

In the Old Testament, God wrestles with a man. In the Talmud, God wriggles his toes to make thunder and takes human form to shave the king of Assyria. In the New Testament, God is made of flesh and dwells among humans. For religious thinkers trained in Greek philosophy and its deep distaste for matter, sacred scripture can be distressing. A philosophically respectable God should be untainted by sensuality, yet the God of sacred texts is often sensual. Setting experts' minds at ease was neither easy nor simple, and, quite often, faith and logic were stretched to their limits. Focusing on examples from both Christian and Jewish sources, from the Bible to the Late Middle Ages, Kleinberg examines the way Christian and Jewish philosophers, exegetes, and theologians attempted to reconcile Gods supposed ineffability with numerous biblical and post-biblical accounts.  Read more...