The Earthy Nature of the Bible

Through a series of readings, Boer explores the earthy nature of the Bible. These readings are gathered into three parts: the Song of Songs; Masculinities; Paraphilias . The first part begins by exploring what a fully carnal allegory (the assumption that the Song is about human sex) might look like, [...]
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Through a series of readings, Boer explores the earthy nature of the Bible. These readings are gathered into three parts: the Song of Songs; Masculinities; Paraphilias . The first part begins by exploring what a fully carnal allegory (the assumption that the Song is about human sex) might look like, moving on to ask how a rigorously literal reading would work (one that takes references to the sex of plants and animals at face value). The second part deals with biblical masculinities and their chronic instabilities at a very material level: the terminology for testicles, or the testicular logic of biblical Hebrew; the spermatic spluttering pen(ise)s of the scribal prophets; the queerness of the all-male worlds of Chronicles and Mount Sinai; and then the deep uncertainties of the ban on images of God, as revealed through male body-building. The third part plunges into paraphilias, whether prostitution or pornography, lascivious rabbis, masturbating prophets, bestiality or necrophilia. Each study is undertaken with rigorous attention to relevant scholarship and significant theoretical engagement (especially with psychoanalysis, ecocriticism and Marxism).