Jewish-Christian Studies

This book, pastoral in nature, is to provide the reader with an in-depth analysis of the challenging history of Judaism, Israel, and the Christian church. After offering an introduction to the First Testament (in Hebrew, Tanakh), the author proceeds to portray an image of Early Christianity or the Jesus Movement during the Apostolic Era to the beginning of the fourth century. During the early part of this era, there was a vibrant union between Jewish believers in Jesus (in Hebrew, Yeshua) and Gentile believers in Jesus. However, over these years, anti-Semitism grew within the Christian Church that resulted in a wound of division between the two segments of the Christian faith. This division resulted in anti-Semitic attitudes, discrimination, exiles and pogroms against the Jewish people, the nation of Israel. This lead, in part to one of the most tragic events in human history, the Holocaust or the Shoah. The author documents factors, both distal and proximate, of the tragedy. Beginning in the decade after WWII, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and, the Catholic Council called Vatican Council II, new hopes for repentance, reconciliation, and healing have begun between the Christian Church, Israel and Messianic Judaism. Sources to the work emerge from the theologies of Judaism, Christianity, and Messianic Judaism. The document is framed sociologically by using ideal types and historical sociological materials. The goal is for the Christian Church to remember, repent of her collective sins against the Jewish people and to journey towards reconciliation among Jews, Messianic Jews, and Christians.

A revealing account of contemporary tensions between Jews and Christians, playing out beneath the surface of conciliatory interfaith dialogue. A new chapter in Jewish-Christian relations opened in the second half of the twentieth century when the Second Vatican Council exonerated Jews from the accusation of deicide and declared that the Jewish people had never been rejected by God. In a few carefully phrased statements, two millennia of deep hostility were swept into the trash heap of history. But old animosities die hard. While Catholic and Jewish leaders publicly promoted interfaith dialogue, doubts remained behind closed doors. Catholic officials and theologians soon found that changing their attitude toward Jews could threaten the foundations of Christian tradition. For their part, many Jews perceived the new Catholic line as a Church effort to shore up support amid atheist and secular advances. Drawing on extensive research in contemporary rabbinical literature, Karma Ben-Johanan shows that Jewish leaders welcomed the Catholic condemnation of antisemitism but were less enthusiastic about the Church's sudden urge to claim their friendship. Catholic theologians hoped Vatican II would turn the page on an embarrassing history, hence the assertion that the Church had not reformed but rather had always loved Jews, or at least should have. Orthodox rabbis, in contrast, believed they were finally free to say what they thought of Christianity. Jacob's Younger Brother pulls back the veil of interfaith dialogue to reveal how Orthodox rabbis and Catholic leaders spoke about each other when outsiders were not in the room. There Ben-Johanan finds Jews reluctant to accept the latest whims of a Church that had unilaterally dictated the terms of Jewish-Christian relations for centuries.

The past and future of Jewish-Christian dialogue The history of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity is storied and tragic. However, recent decades show promise as both parties reflect on their self-definitions and mutual contingency and consider possible ways forward. In Healing the Schism, Jennifer M. Rosner maps the new Jewish-Christian encounter from its origins in the early twentieth-century pioneers to its current representatives. Rosner first traces the thought of Karl Barth and Frank Rosenzweig and brings them into conversation. Rosner then outlines the reassessments and developments of post-Holocaust theological architects that moved the dialogue forward and set the stage for today. She considers the recent work of Messianic Jewish theologian Mark S. Kinzer and concludes by envisioning future possibilities. With clarity and rigor, Rosner offers a robust perspective of Judaism and Christianity that is post-supersessionist and theologically orthodox. Healing the Schism is essential reading for understanding the perils and promise of Messianic Jewish identity and Jewish-Christian theological conversation.

How Jewish was Karl Barth? This provocative question by David Novak opens Karl Barth, the Jews, and Judaism--a volume that brings together nine eminent Jewish and Christian theologians reflecting on a crucial aspect of Barth's thought and legacy. These scholarly essays not only make a noteworthy contribution to Barth studies but also demonstrate creative possibilities for building positive Jewish-Christian relations without theological compromise. Contributors & Topics David Novak on the extent to which Barth thought like a Jew Eberhard Busch on three Jewish-Christian milestones in Barth's life George Hunsinger on Christian philo-Semitism and supersessionism Peter Ochs on Barthian elements in Jewish-Christian dialogue Victoria J. Barnett on Barth and post-WWII interfaith encounters Thomas F. Torrance on Israel's divine calling in world history C. E. B. Cranfield on Pauline texts pertinent to Jewish-Christian relations Hans Küng on moving from anti-Semitism to theological dialogue Ellen T. Charry on addressing theological roots of enmity

In late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old. The rise and revolutionary challenge of Christianity also had a profound influence on rabbinic Judaism, which was itself just emerging and, like Christianity, trying to shape its own identity. In The Jewish Jesus, Peter Schäfer reveals the crucial ways in which various Jewish heresies, including Christianity, affected the development of rabbinic Judaism. He even shows that some of the ideas that the rabbis appropriated from Christianity were actually reappropriated Jewish ideas. The result is a demonstration of the deep mutual influence between the sister religions, one that calls into question hard and fast distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy, and even Judaism and Christianity, during the first centuries CE.

Genesis in the New Testament brings together a set of specially commissioned studies by authors who are experts in the field. After an introductory chapter on the use of Genesis in the Dead Sea Scrolls and second temple literature, each of the New Testament books that contain quotations from Genesis are discussed: Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts, John, Paul, Deutero-Paul, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter and Jude, Revelation. The book provides an overview of the status, role and function of Genesis in the first century. It considers the Greek and Hebrew manuscript traditions and offers insights into the various hermeneutical stances of the New Testament authors and the development of New Testament theology. The book follows on from acclaimed volumes considering Isaiah, Deuteronomy and the Minor Prophets in a similar manner.

This is the first encyclopedic guide to the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to today. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book features more than 150 authoritative and accessible articles by an international team of leading experts in history, politics, literature, anthropology, and philosophy. Organized thematically and chronologically, this indispensable reference provides critical facts and balanced context for greater historical understanding and a more informed dialogue between Jews and Muslims.