Jewish-Christian Dialogue Drawing Honey from the Rock

by Berger, Alan L.; Patterson, David

• ISBN13: 9781557788566
• ISBN10: 1557788561
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Atlas Books

Summary

Jews and Christians are bound by an intimacy unprecedented in the history of religions; Jesus, Mary, Paul, and the first apostles were Jewish. Theologically, Christianity needs Judaism. But the relationship between the two religions is fundamentally asymmetrical. John Roth succinctly states the theological imbalance: Nothing in Jewish life logically or theologically entails Christian existence. Christian life, however, does depend essentially on Jewish life. Christianity makes no sense, it would not even exist, if the world contained no Jewish history. Given this intimate connection, one might assume that dialogue between the two religions would come naturally. The opposite, however, is the case. Authentic Jewish-Christian dialogue is a new historical phenomenon whose birth is directly related to the horror and shame of the Holocaust. From the ashes of the death camps there emerged an ember of hope.

Author Biography

David Patterson holds the Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies at The University of Memphis. Alan L. Berger holds the Raddock Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies and directs the Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz, as well as the Jewish Studies B.A. Program at Florida Atlantic University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Some Fundamental Issues	p. 2
What Dialogue Can Achieve	p. 7
Barriers to Dialogue	p. 8
Christian Antisemitism as a Necessary Condition for the Holocaust	p. 10
The Crisis in Jewish-Christian Relations Manifest in Popular Culture	p. 12
Post-Holocaust Contexts	p. 20
Areas Addressed in This Volume	p. 29
The Symptoms of a Malady	p. 35
A Brief History of Post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian Dialogue	p. 36
The Holocaust's Threat to Jewish Tradition	p. 43
The Holocaust's Threat to Christian Tradition	p. 52
The Illusion of Relation	p. 61
Historical Considerations from a Jewish Perspective	p. 69
The Jewish Jesus	p. 74
History and Myth	p. 81
The Formulation of Christian Doctrine	p. 89
Antisemitism and Anti-Judaism: Is There a Difference?	p. 94
Theological Issues	p. 101
Fundamental Differences between Jewish and Christian Teaching	p. 105
The Theological Necessity of Antisemitism in Christian Thought	p. 113
Antisemitism as the Sin against the Holy Spirit	p. 120
The Meaning of Vatican II	p. 125
A Church Divided: Theology and Politics	p. 138
Can There Be a Jewish-Christian Dialogue after Auschwitz?	p. 143
Post-Holocaust Challenges	p. 147
Promise and Peril: We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah	p. 156
Promise and Peril: Dabru Emet	p. 169
Saying Out Loud What We Are Afraid to Say	p. 176
Dialogue in Action	p. 183
Getting Started: The Christians' Reply	p. 184
The Issue of Forgiveness	p. 199
Europe and the Rest of the World	p. 203
The Muslims	p. 207
The State of Israel	p. 210
Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ	p. 217
Theological Stumbling Blocks	p. 220
Seeking the Messiah	p. 231
The Concept of Conversion	p. 233
Doing God's Will: The Righteous	p. 238
Hebrew Scriptures	p. 241
Do We Worship the Same God?	p. 243
Conclusion	p. 249
What Have We Learned	p. 249
Contemporary Implications	p. 252
The Current State of the Dialogue	p. 254
The Persistence of Antisemitism	p. 257
Questions for the Future	p. 261
Endnotes	p. 265
Bibliography	p. 283
About the Authors and Contributors	p. 299
Index	p. 303
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