Jesus and Addiction to Origins: Towards an Anthropocentric Study of Religion

Abstract

tage: one can be a Jewish atheist, but cannot be a Jewish believer in Christ. This is to say that one can be a lapsed Jew who has abandoned religion, but one cannot be a Jew while practising or aligning oneself with another religion, and certainly not with Christianity. The South African Lemba challenge this by claiming Jewish identity and heritage because of their DNA while largely being Christians. More broadly, of course, Tamarkin’s text also problematises genetics and what they can actually tell us; he rejects the idea that they can tell us about origins while also rejecting the idea that origins can tell us about essence. The point is thatDNA is not the end of the discussion but the beginning, andwemust seek to understand theways inwhichDNAevidence is (andwill be) used to polemicise different ideas, including by the subjects of study themselves. Serious questions arise from this discussion of DNA as evidence– how does DNA relate to indigeneity, that is to say, can DNA establish one’s right to state citizenship? And, if it can, then could it be used to remove citizenship? Specifically, if the Lemba claim to be Israelites, then should they return to Israel? Do they still retain the right to live in South Africa? These questions of belonging and indigeneity are critical to human social life. Tamarkin’s study shows how careful we all must be in making and assessing claims based on DNA. This highly nuanced and important book contributes to many debates: as well as Black Jewish Studies, it challenges our understanding of identity more generally, showing that ingrained western notions of religion are more supple in other places. Tamarkin’s book also contributes to the study of African religions, apartheid studies, and to South African history. Perhaps most importantly, however, it contributes to contemporary debates on the nature of Judaism and Jewishness by arguing that such cannot be defined simply according to any single criteria. The Hebrew umbrella model that is suggested herein is one that I expect to grow in popularity in the years to come.