Skip to main content

Christianity: Commonalities and New Understandings

  • Chapter
Judaism and World Religions
  • 153 Accesses

Abstract

Medieval Jewish philosophers saw a commonality between Judaism and Christianity in terms of monotheism and the Biblical God as creator of heaven and earth. This chapter will look at the possibilities of commonality in the contemporary era. For almost two millennia, when Jews spoke of Christians, it was either to extenuate the difference between the two religions or it was to point out that Christianity was incomprehensible.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Joseph Kimhi, The Book of the Covenant of Joseph Kimhi (Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1972), 28–29.

    Google Scholar 

  2. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, Jewish-Christian relations (London: Council of Christians and Jews, 1973).

    Google Scholar 

  3. The French-Jewish Ad Hoc Committee, “Christianity in Jewish Theology,” Revue des Études Juives 160 (2001): 495–497, http://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/documents-and-statements/jewish/765-fr-jewish-comm1973.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Tikva Frymer-Kensky, et al. Christianity in Jewish Terms (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), 124.

    Google Scholar 

  5. David Novak, Talking with Christians: Musings of a Jewish Theologian (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2005), 5, 23, 27, 29, 30.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Marvin A. Sweeney, “Why Jews Are Interested in Biblical Theology: A Retrospective on the Work of Jon D. Levinson,” Jewish Book Annual 55–56 (1997–99): 135–68.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Jon Levenson, Sinai and Zion (New York: HarperOne, 1987), 38–40, 77.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Jon Levenson, The Death And Resurrection of The Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism And Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), X.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jon D. Levenson, “The Same God? Who Do Christians and Muslims Worship?” The Christian Century 121: 8 (2004): 32–33.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Jon D. Levenson, “The Agenda of Dabru Emet” Review of Rabbinic Judaism, 7:1(2004): 1–26; citation specifically from pp. 9, 12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Sharon Goldman, “The World Repaired, Remade An Interview With Jon D. Levenson,” Harvard Divinity School Bulletin vol. 35, no. 1 (Winter 2007). Available at http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/bulletin_mag/articles/35-1_levenson.html (accessed June 13, 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Peter W. Ochs, “The God of Jews and Christians,” in Christianity in Jewish Terms, ed. Tikva Frymer-Kensky (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), xii.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Peter W. Ochs, “The God of Jews and Christians,” in Christianity in Jewish Terms, ed. Tikva Frymer-Kensky (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), 59.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Jeffrey W. Baile, “Reading Scripture Across Interfaith Lines,” The Christian Century (September 2006): 36–42.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Meir Sendor, “The Violence of the Neutral in Interfaith Relations,” in Theology of Other Religions, ed. Alon Goshen-Gottstein and E. Korn (Portland: Littman Library, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Michael Signer, “Searching the Scriptures,” in Christianity in Jewish Terms, ed. Tikva Frymer-Kensky (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), 86, 97.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Transforming Relations: Essays on Jews and Christians throughout History in Honor of Michael A. Signer, ed. Franklin T. Harkins (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Idem., Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, lsrael, and the Initial Confrontation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Jacob Neusner, Telling Tales; Making Sense of Christian and Judaic Nonsense: The Urgency and Basis for Judeo-Christian Dialogue (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 95.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Jacob Neusner, Rabbi Talks with Jesus: (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press; Rev. ed, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Jacob Neusner, Telling Tales; Making Sense of Christian and Judaic Nonsense: The Urgency and Basis for Judeo-Christian Dialogue (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 12.

    Google Scholar 

  22. A. Roy Eckardt, “Telling Tales: Making Sense of Christian and Judaic Nonsense: The Urgency and Basis for Judeo-Christian Dialogue,” Theology Today (October 1993): 502–3.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Pinchas Lapide and Jurgen Moltmann, Jewish Monotheism and Christian Trinitarian Doctrine, forward by Jacob Agus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 19–22.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Pinchas Lapide and Karl Rahner, Encountering JesusEncountering Judaism: A Dialogue (New York: Crossroad, 1987), 49.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jesus was treated as part of Jewish history, unfortunately the situation has almost reversed itself in recent decades, see Pinchas Lapide, “Jesus in Israeli Textbooks,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 10 (Summer, 1973): 515–531.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Lapide and Rahner, Encountering JesusEncountering Judaism: A Dialogue (New York: Crossroad, 1987), 36–40, 67–8.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Pinchas Lapide, Paul, Rabbi, and Apostle (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), 54–55, 69–70, 39, 85.

    Google Scholar 

  28. For an example of the criticism he received, see Pnina Nave Levinson, “Christian Preacher,” Evangelische Information 24 (June 1979): 75.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Alon Goshen-Gottstein, “Judaisms and Incarnational Theologies: Mapping Out the Parameters of Dialogue,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 39: 3 (2002): 219–247.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Alon Goshen-Gottstein, “God the Father in Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity: Transformed Background or Common Ground?” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 38 (2001): 85 (n81).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Alon Goshen-Gottstein, “Thinking of/With Scripture: Struggling for the Religious Significance of the Song of Songs,” The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 3: 2 (August 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Joseph Salvador, das Leben Jesu Und Sein Lehre (Dresden: Walther’s Buchhandlung, 1841), 348, quoted in Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Judaism and Other Faiths (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), 87.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Joseph Salvador, Paris, Rome, Jérusalem, Ou La Question Religeuse au XIXe Siécle, (Paris: Michel-Lévy Frères, 1860).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Judaism and Other Faiths (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), 89.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  35. Martin Buber, Origins of Hasidism (New York: Horizon Press, 1960), 110.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Jewish Perspectives on Christianity (New York: Crossroad, 1990);

    Google Scholar 

  37. Jonathan D. Brumberg-Kraus, “A Jewish Ideological Perspective on the Study of Christian Scripture,” Jewish Social Studies 4:1 (Autumn, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  38. D. F. Sandmel, “Joseph Klausner, Israel, and Jesus,” Currents in Theology and Mission 31: 6 (2004): 456–464.

    Google Scholar 

  39. David Flusser, Jesus (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Géza Vermès, Jesus and the World of Judaisim (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983);

    Google Scholar 

  41. John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991);

    Google Scholar 

  42. M. J. Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994);

    Google Scholar 

  43. N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996);

    Google Scholar 

  44. E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (London: S. C. M, 1977);

    Google Scholar 

  45. Géza Vermès, The Changing Faces of Jesus (New York: Viking Compass, 2001);

    Google Scholar 

  46. Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity (New York: Vintage Books, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Géza Vermès, Jesus the Jew (London: S. C. M, 2001), 17.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Beatrice Bruteau, Jesus through Jewish Eyes: Rabbis and Scholars Engage an Ancient Brother in A New Conversation (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001), 59.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles and Other Essays (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977

    Google Scholar 

  50. Nicholas Thomas Write, Paul: Fresh Perspectives (London: SPCK, 2005

    Google Scholar 

  51. E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977

    Google Scholar 

  52. James D. G. Dunn, Jesus, Paul, And The Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990

    Google Scholar 

  53. James D. G. Dunn, The New Perspective On Paul (Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997

    Google Scholar 

  55. Pamela Eisenbaum, Paul was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Paul (New York: HarperOne, 2009

    Google Scholar 

  56. Paula Fredriksen, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010

    Google Scholar 

  57. Adele Reinhartz, Befriending the Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John (New York: Continuum, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Daniel Boyarin, Borderlines (Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  59. Idem, “Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue of John,” in The Harvard Theological Review 94:3 (July 2001): 243–284

    Google Scholar 

  60. idem, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (Berkley: University of California Press, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  61. See Alan Segal, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977).

    Google Scholar 

  62. Daniel Boyarin, Borderlines (Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 125.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Moshe Idel, Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism (New York: Continuum Books, 2007), 146–147.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Daniel Boyarin, Borderlines (Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 138.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels (New York: The New Press, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  66. Peter Schafer, Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 119, 232–234, 239–240.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Arthur Green, “Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and the Song of Songs: Reflections on a Kabbalistic Symbol in Its Historical Context,” AJS Review 26:1 (2002): 1–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (New York: Doubleday, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (New York: Doubleday, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  70. idem, Jesus of Nazareth. Part Two, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  71. S. J. Carlo Maria Martini, “Christianity and Judaism: A Historical And Theological Overview,” in Jews and Christians: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future, ed. James Charlesworth (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 19.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Copyright information

© 2012 Alan Brill

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Brill, A. (2012). Christianity: Commonalities and New Understandings. In: Judaism and World Religions. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137013187_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics