While Christians and Jews have always been aware of their religious connections — historical continuity, overlapping theology, shared scriptures — that awareness has traditionally been inf
While Christians and Jews have always been aware of their religious connections — historical continuity, overlapping theology, shared scriptures — that awareness has traditionally been infected by centuries of mutual suspicion and hostility. As this important volume shows, however, theologians and scholars of Judaism and Christianity alike are now radically rethinking the relation between their two covenant communities.
Jews and Christians presents the best of this work, introducing readers to current attempts to construct a coherent Jewish theology of Christianity and a Christian theology of Judaism. Here are leading Christian and Jewish thinkers who have engaged in extensive conversation, who take each other's work seriously, and who avoid the pitfall common to Jewish-Christian dialogue — watering down distinctive beliefs to accommodate both partners. Indeed, these pages show how the new theological exchange goes to the roots of that "olive tree" of which both Judaism and Christianity are branches, and the book as a whole represents post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian dialogue at the highest theological level.
In addition to eight major chapters, Jews and Christians includes a moving testimony by Reidar Dittmann on his experience of the Holocaust and reprints the 2000 manifesto Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity, followed by incisive Christian and Jewish responses.
Michael A. Signer
"Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson have assembled a remarkable group of essays that will contribute to greater understanding between Jews and Christians. In the spirit of a genuine dialogue between these two communities, these essays do not evade the difficult issues that have divided them in the past. They demand a primary commitment of Jews and Christians to the integrity of their own traditions, and then demand the search for common ground. Neither side waters down its profound dedication to God as expressed in its tradition but through a rereading of both Scripture and tradition the two sides find new paths for conversation. Ultimately, the writers in this volume demand that their readers examine stereotypes and facile explanations in order to arrive at a new vision of what Jews and Christians might accomplish together in the world. This volume should be of interest to theologians, pastors, and members of churches and synagogues who are seeking to bring blessings to our deeply divided world and to engage in its repair."
Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
"A milestone in scholarly reflection and thoroughgoing exchange between two faith communities that are inextricably connected."
Alan Mittleman
"In recent years there has been a deepening of theological reflection on the relationship of Christians and Jews. Christians are now engaged in fundamental theological work on Judaism in the presence of Jews, and Jews, astonishingly, are wrestling with the divine reality of Christian faith in the presence of Christians. This book is both a model for and a distinguished contribution to this profound intellectual and moral encounter. The editors are to be congratulated for this brilliant collection of essays. "
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Carl E. Braaten is professor emeritus of systematic theology at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and former executive director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.
Robert W. Jenson (1930–2017) was a leading Lutheran and ecumenical theologian. He served as codirector of the Institute for Theological Inquiry and was cofounder and longtime associate director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. Among his many significant books are A Religion against Itself, The Triune Identity, and the two-volume Systematic Theology.
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