The Sensual God The Sensual God how the senses make the almighty senseless Aviad Kleinberg C o lu m b i a U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s N e w Y o r k Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kleinberg, Aviad M. The sensual God : how the senses make the almighty senseless / Aviad Kleinberg. pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-17470-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-54024-7 (ebook) 1. God I. Title. BL473.K54 2015 211—dc23 2015002483 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 cover design: Mary Ann Smith References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix chapter 1 Instability and Its Discontents 1 chapter 2 Loving God Like a Cow 10 chapter 3 Endless 17 chapter 4 Credo 29 chapter 5 Unimaginable: A Short Digression 41 chapter 6 Impossible 47 chapter 7 A Short Discourse on the Spiritual Senses 61 chapter 8 Invisible 68 chapter 9 Tasteless 82 chapter 10 Untouchable 100 chapter 11 Inaudible 120 chapter 12 Scentless 136 Post Scriptum 147 Notes 153 Bibliography 171 Index 181 vi—contents Acknowledgments Work on this book began at the library of the Pontifical Institute of Me- diaeval Studies in Toronto, where I enjoyed the hospitality of my dear friends Maruja and Hal Jackman. It continued in Paris at the library of the Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in Oxford at the Bodleian Library and in my hometown, Tel Aviv. Friends and colleagues read the manuscript or parts of it. Karma Ben Jo- hanan, Brian Stock, Joe Goering, Isahai Rosen Zvi, Tamar Herzig, Maruja Jackman and Francoise Meltzer offered comments, corrections and en- couragement. I am deeply grateful to them all. INTRODUCTION When I tell people about this book, they often want to know whether I believe in God. I say I don’t. Why then, they wonder, do I dedicate so much time and effort to issues that few nonbelievers today find relevant? In fact, they say, it is far from certain that even believers find theology all that relevant. One can be a perfectly good Christian, or Jew, or Muslim, with very little theological knowledge, and one can know a lot of theology and have very little faith. I must add furthermore that there was nothing “natural” about my choice of subject. I am the son of Holocaust survivors for whom disbelief in a God of justice is a moral duty. I grew up in a secular home and in a secular state. Interest in Christianity was frowned upon. In the Israel in which I grew up, showing sympathy for Christian ideas smacked of un- faithfulness, not to the God of our fathers, but to a ghostly throng of slain and persecuted ancestors. And yet I was, and still am, strongly attracted to these texts, to their concerns and ideals, to their endless dialogue with a being in whom I do not believe. Why? Probably because of the questions. Religions ask “big questions.” Why are we here? What is the meaning of our existence? Why do hu- mans suffer? Why are humans worthy, or unworthy, of salvation? Who is responsible for the way things are? Religious texts are unabashedly en- grossed in the sublime. In my fashion so am I. Religious thinkers take ex- istence seriously, treat it as a matter of life and death, invest great talent and great passion in it. I find such concerns and such emotional attitudes strongly appealing, philosophically, morally, and even aesthetically.