Christians and Jews, Friends or Foe & Jesus the Misunderstood Jew
Uncategorized, Judaism, Jewish Books, Jewish Education, Jewish Audio, On G-D, Politics of Religion July 17th, 2007
Last weekend ABC’s (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) program “The Spirit of Things” aired an interesting show looking at some of the schisms, opportunities and misunderstandings that exist within the Jewish/Christian dialogue. I am listing to it now and thus far, it’s quite good.
Below is the show synopsis and a couple links for those of you who would like to listen to it for your selves!
SUMMARY: Since the parting of the ways 2000 years ago, are Christians and Jews any closer to bridging the gap of understanding and friendship? After a history of being persecuted by Christians, Jews feel they are still the object of antisemitism. Meanwhile Christians preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to an unredeemed world. How can these two traditions overcome the sibling rivalry and work for a better world? New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine, and others from the International Council of Christians and Jews conference in Sydney point the way.
One thing that has really grabbed me was the interview with Amy-Jill Levine, a biblical scholar from Vanderbilt . I have a an excellent series of lectures by here on some of the great figures of the “Old Testament”. I had always assumed that she was a Christian theologian because that lecture series I have, used the term “Old Testament” instead of Torah in the title. I just thought that no Jew would do that. But nope she is in fact an accomplished (Modern Orthodox) Jewish academic.
One of her main points seems to be that we Jew’s need to develop a better understanding of who Jesus was and why he is so important to our Christians neighbors. More or less suggesting that we Jews a have been lazy especially since the Holocaust in terms of Judeo/Christian understanding. She goes on to to suggest many Jews seem to believe that Christians need to apologize and learn about us and our Judaism but we need do nothing but accept the apologies. To her this is not only a mistake but inappropriate. If you want to know why, well then you will have to listen for yourselves!
NOTE: I just heard that Jesus wore “Tzitzit“. Nice!
Levine also briefly touches on how and why she wound up as a member of an Orthodox community, which is also interesting.
Oh, I wanted mention that she has written what promises to be a very interesting new book, titled “The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus”. This is one, I’m sure to be reading in the not too distant future.
Anyhow, I haven’t even touched on the interfaith dialogue stuff but trust me it’s worth checking out!
Zed and Steg, if you guys end up listening to the show let me know what you think.
Technorati tags: Interfaith, Judaism, Christianity, Amy-Jill Levine, ABC Radio, The Spirit of Things, Islam, Jesus the misunderstood Jew
Listen to this podcast
July 17th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Sure seems very relevant to something that has been on my mind this past week. I will add it to TG’s rather large list of listening material for me.
On the use of “Old Testament,” I had the same reaction when looking up bible commentaries in my university library. But OT is the term used in the cataloging. We’re not going to win that battle (or get apologies for it), I am afraid.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Hey TG,
This is an interesting post. As a convert to Judaism who was raised in a crazily-fundamentalist Christian environment - and who has taught counter-missionary classes at m synagogue - I feel that Jews can and should learn to appreciate Jesus as a Jewish teacher, aside from all of the Christological gunk attributed to him in the Gospels. Jesus, it seems, was just one in a line of prospective Messiahs in the 1st century who were too revolutionary and died at Roman hands. I tend to share Rabbi Telushkin’s assessment that Jesus was a Jew who would feel more comfortable in shul than church, if he were here today, and anything that is attributed to him that doesn’t fit a 1st century Jewish mind was added by Paul and later Christians.
Anyway, thanks for the tip on the book!
kol tuv,
Yair
July 17th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Yes, Yair, I share your take on how we should view Jesus, and what Telushkin says has been very influential in my thinking about these matters.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Hey guys, I’m glad that you both seem to button something out of the post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
AviShalom please don’t feel like you have to listen to anything you don’t feel like. I just throw stuff your way that I think might interest you but I don’t actually expect you to go through and listen to everything I send your way.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
this is great … as a jew married to a lutheran (his father was a minister and probably knew more about judaism than some have forgotten), i’ve always thought… its ultimately different roads to the same G-d
Shalom
gp in montana