Search Results for foreskin and circumcision

... is theorized as well as practiced by Bernard of Clairvaux. In his sermon “In Circumcisione Domini,” Bernard describes Christ’s circumcision as a literary stylization — he calls it an “abbreviation” of the divine Word.7 For Bernard, the foreskin stands as a mediator between the Logos and the Incar...

... are in many ways most powerfully encoded in the sym- bolics of any given part.”19 Perhaps surprisingly, the foreskin is not among the many body parts anatomized in this volume; but it would be difficult to exaggerate the symbolic overdetermination of circumcision as a cultural signifier in early modern...

... of their foreskins, and the first lesson in the evening is Deuteronomy 10, which enjoins the reader, “circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart” (verse 16). The readings here are specifically selected to conform to the liturgical character of the day. After 1 January, however, the readings assume a less...

... his body with awls and chisels.52 Fifteenth-century engravings make clear that Simon was first circumcised (as was Hugh of Lincoln) before being punctured, bled, and eviscerated, and a particular group of engravings, as Fabre-Vassas points out, combines...

... and the foreskin — represented and magically upheld cultural boundaries. Muslims living in Christian parts of Spain were distinguished by legally mandated haircuts, and the thirteenth- ­century Customs of Tortosa ordered all Muslim men to wear beards.51 The circumcision of the Christian body, on the other...