Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of ChristianityOxford University Press, 2007 M12 17 - 300 pages The Vatican II Council of 1965 signaled a new era in the relationship of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Determined to free the Church of the anti-Jewish polemic which led to such widespread suffering of the innocent, Catholic authorities completely revised their conceptions of Jews and Judaism. Soon, many mainstream Protestant churches also issued a series of official statements that affirm the eternal nature of God's ancient covenant with Israel. An entirely new category of theology emerged as part of the developing Jewish-Christian dialogue, and gradually Jewish theologians began to respond. Opening the Covenant represents a significant advance in Jewish thinking about Christianity. Michael Kogan delves deep into the theologies of the two faiths to locate precise points of difference and convergence. He sees Christianity as the breaking open of the original Covenant to include Gentile peoples. God has brought this about, says Kogan, through the work of Jesus and his interpreters. If Christianity is a divinely inspired movement, then Judaism must reevaluate its truth-claims. This will in no way compromise the truth of Judaism itself but will cause Jews to understand their own faith more fully by locating it in the larger context of God's universal redemptive plan. Kogan calls for each tradition to receive the wisdom of the other as a means of self-understanding. Once each faith is freed to find God's purpose in the other, the way will be open to a liberating pluralism in which Jews and Christians come to see each other as Israelite siblings sharing a universal role as God's witnesses, the builders of God's Kingdom on Earth. Neither faith can do this world-redemptive work alone. Kogan argues that an affirmation of one's own religion can still provide space for the truth of the "other," and presents a theory of multiple revelations of truth flowing from the one God of all. |
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Page xi
... Holy Week liturgy at St. Peter's in Rome. Suddenly he gave a signal that abruptly interrupted the worship. The choir had just referred to ''the perfidious Jews,'' a line that had been part of the liturgy for many centuries. The pope ...
... Holy Week liturgy at St. Peter's in Rome. Suddenly he gave a signal that abruptly interrupted the worship. The choir had just referred to ''the perfidious Jews,'' a line that had been part of the liturgy for many centuries. The pope ...
Page xii
... holy faith of the Patriarchs. This mixed view prevailed in America and elsewhere, but recently the positive side has become dominant. For more than a half century now, Protestants have engaged in outreach to Jews and Judaism. This ...
... holy faith of the Patriarchs. This mixed view prevailed in America and elsewhere, but recently the positive side has become dominant. For more than a half century now, Protestants have engaged in outreach to Jews and Judaism. This ...
Page 6
... Holy One will train this man, family, tribe, and people in the ways of righteousness. God will do this by arranging a series of events to test them and to teach them so to act that they will become a witness people, a holy nation ...
... Holy One will train this man, family, tribe, and people in the ways of righteousness. God will do this by arranging a series of events to test them and to teach them so to act that they will become a witness people, a holy nation ...
Page 8
... holy calling. And when we act it out, the Holy One bestows on us fragile creatures the mind-boggling capacity to affect God's decisions and alter God's plans. And remember that the people for whom Abraham risks everything are not of his ...
... holy calling. And when we act it out, the Holy One bestows on us fragile creatures the mind-boggling capacity to affect God's decisions and alter God's plans. And remember that the people for whom Abraham risks everything are not of his ...
Page 9
... Holy One can transform all of human experience and remake the world. He concludes, ''The Lord is in this place [this world] and I did not know it'' (Gen. 28:16). It is the calling of Israel—ultimately to be Jacob's name—to summon all ...
... Holy One can transform all of human experience and remake the world. He concludes, ''The Lord is in this place [this world] and I did not know it'' (Gen. 28:16). It is the calling of Israel—ultimately to be Jacob's name—to summon all ...
Contents
3 | |
2 The Question of the Messiah | 37 |
3 Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity | 69 |
How Far Can Jews and Christians Go? | 85 |
Christian Churches Reevaluate Judaism | 121 |
6 Engaging Two Contemporary Theologians of the Dialogue | 143 |
ChristianJewish Dialogue Moves Forward | 165 |
8 Truth and Fact in Religious Narrative | 183 |
9 Bringing the Dialogue Home | 199 |
10 Does Politics Trump Theology? The IsraeliPalestinian Dispute Invades the JewishChristian Dialogue | 213 |
11 Toward a Pluralist Theology of Judaism | 231 |
Notes | 247 |
Bibliography | 257 |
Index | 263 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraham accept affirm anointed believe Buber called Catholic century Chris Christ Christian theology christology church claims commandments conception course covenant Dabru Emet David divine earlier earth eternal ethical finite Franz Rosenzweig gentiles God’s Gospels grace Greenberg Hebrew Scriptures Heschel Holy human Ibid individual infinite interpretation Irving Greenberg Israel Israelite issue Jacob Jesus Jewish messianic Jewish theology Jews Jews and Christians Jews and Judaism Judaism and Christianity king kingdom liberal Christians live Lord Me’iri meaning Messiah moral Moses Moses Mendelssohn nations Noahide Noahide laws Nostra Aetate one’s ongoing Paul Paul’s Pawlikowski pluralism pluralist Presbyterians prophet question rabbi rabbinic Judaism recognize redemption rejected relationship religion religious resurrection revelation righteous Rosenzweig salvation salvific seems self-transcendence servant spiritual statement story suffering synagogue T. S. Eliot Talmud teaching Testament texts theologians thought Torah tradition true truth ultimate understanding universal validity vision witness words worship