Jewish-Christian Relations

The 19 essays of this book are exceptional in that, together, they cover the entire span of relations between Jews and Christians from the time of Jesus to the present. This lengthy period and complex subject required many experts and specialists, many of whom are famous in their fields. They have, however, created works of synthesis written in non-technical language and designed largely for the interested general reader and non-specialist as well as for students seeking to come to an understanding of one of the great issues of our time. Some of the themes highlighted in this book are: Judaism and Christianity in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Christian theory and practice towards the Jews from the Church Fathers through the Reformation; Judaism as interpreted in German biblical scholarship; modern antisemitism and philosemitism; policies and postures of the Allies and of the Vatican during World War II; and the several Christian attempts at reformulation since the Holocaust, culminating with Pope John Paul II.

Chapter One: Christians and Jews: Along a Theological Frontier, by A. Roy Eckhardt Chapter Two: What Do We Really Think of Judaism, by Philip Culbertson Chapter Three:nbsp; Probing the Jewish-Christian Reality, by Paul M. Van Buren Chapter Four:nbsp; Fulfillment Theology and the Future of Jewish-Christian Relations, by Isaac C. Rottenberg Chapter Five:nbsp; The Continuing Need for Judaism, by John Shelby Spong Chapter Six:nbsp; The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust, by Michael Berenbaum Chapter Seven:nbsp; The Holocaust: Its Implications for the Church and Society Problematic, by John T. Pawlikowski Chapter Eight:nbsp; Evangelical Christians and Holocaust Theology, by Stephen T. Davis Chapter Nine:nbsp; The Impact of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue on Biblical Studies, by Eugene J. Fisher Chapter Ten:nbsp; Anti-Semitism and the Christologies of Barth, Berkouwer and Pannenberg, by Eugene B. Borowitz Chapter Eleven:nbsp; Christ Against the Jews:nbsp; A Review of Jon Sobrino's Christology Chapter Twelve:nbsp; A Decade of Catholic-Jewish Relations: A Reassessment, by Henry Siegman Chapter Thirteen:nbsp; A Response to Henry Siegman, by Edward H. Flannery Chapter Fourteen:nbsp; Judaism and Christianity:nbsp; A Theology of Co-existence, by Harold H Ditmanson Chapter Fifteen:nbsp; Toward a New Relationship Between Christians and Jews, by David Cairns

Thoroughly exploring the history of the conflict between Christians and Jews from medieval to modern times, this wide-ranging volume includes newly uncovered material from the recently opened post-Soviet archives. Anna Sapir Abulafia delineates controversial issues of inter-faith confrontation, and a number of eminent scholars from around the globe discuss openly and objectively the dynamics of Jewish creative response in the face of violence. Through the analysis of the histories of the Christian and Jewish religious traditions, this book provides a valuable understanding of their relationship as a modern day phenomenon.

Leonard B. Glick recounts the history of the Ashkenazic Jewish experience in medieval western Europe from the fifth to fifteenth centuries, focusing on interaction between Jews and Christians during this vital formative period.

He demonstrates that Ashkenazic Jewish culture was profoundly shaped and conditioned by life in an overwhelmingly Christian society. Drawing on diverse Christian documents, he portrays Christian beliefs about medieval Jews and Judaism with a degree of detail seldom found in Jewish histories.

Emphasizing social, political, and economic history, but also discussing religious topics, Glick describes the evolution of a complex, inherently unequal relationship.

Because the Ashkenazic Jews of medieval Europe were ancestral to almost the entire Jewish population of eastern Europe, their historical experience played a major role in the heritage of most Jewish Americans.

This book contributes to the small but growing literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Edwards focusses on the eastern "Greek" provinces in the first and second centuries A.D.--the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices to establish and consolidate their social, political, and economic power. Edwards considers both archaeological and literary evidence. He examines coins, epigraphs, statuary, building complexes, mosaics, and paintings from across Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine looking for evidence of sponsorship by local elites and the meaning of such sponsorship. On the literary side, Edwards selects one representative figure from each of the three major religio-cultural traditions: the Greek writer, Chariton of Aphrodisias; the Jewish historian, Josephus; and the Christian evangelist, the author of Luke Acts. He illustrates how each writer's use of religion reflects the interaction of local elite groups with the "web of power" that existed in political, cultural, and social spheres of the Roman Empire.

Black Zion explores the myriad ways in which African American religions have encountered Jewish traditions, beliefs, and spaces. The collection's unifying argument is that religion is the missing piece of the cultural jigsaw puzzle, that much of the recent turmoil in black-Jewish relations would be better understood, if not alleviated, if the religious roots of those relations were illuminated. Toward that end, the contributors look a number of provocative topics, including the concept of the Chosen People, the typological identification of blacks with Jews, the actual identification of blacks as Jews, the sacredness of space and symbols, the importance of scriptural interpretation in creating theology and self understanding, the dialectic of exile and redemption in communal history, and the integration of ethnicity and religion in constructing group identity. Ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Hebrew Israelites and from Abraham Joshua Heschel to Martin Luther King, Jr., the book sheds light on a little examined but vitally important dimension of black-Jewish relations in America: religion.

This book deconstructs the boundaries between Jewish and Christian cultures while at the same time redefining what it means to be Jewish in relation to Christianity in the twentieth century. Consequently, this analysis reveals the emergence of modern Jewish theologies out of the complex negotiations between Jewish thinkers and their Christian milieu.

Many studies written about the Jewish-Christian relationship are primarily historical overviews that focus on the Jewish background of Christianity, the separation of Christianity from Judiasm, or the medieval disputations between the two faiths. This book is one of the first studies to examine the relationship from a philosophical and theological viewpoint. Carefully drawing on Jewish classical sources, Novak argues that there is actual justification for the new relationship between Judaism and Christianity from within Jewish religious tradition. He demonstrates that this new relationship is possible between religiously committed Jews and Christians without the two major impediments to dialogue: triumphalism and relativism. One of the very few books on this topic written by a Jewish theologian who speaks specifically to modern Christian concerns, it will provide the groundwork for a more serious development of Jewish-Christian dialogue in our day.