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 xiv
... infinite context, to see the individual as the finite bearer of the infinite life of God. There can be no private religion that is true religion in this sense. To transcend our narrow egocentric selves and reach out to others in shared ...
... infinite context, to see the individual as the finite bearer of the infinite life of God. There can be no private religion that is true religion in this sense. To transcend our narrow egocentric selves and reach out to others in shared ...
Page 8
... his demanding Parent. What has been learned? Perhaps the lesson central to all of God's teaching: the infinite value of a single human life. By demanding the one life that was infinitely valuable 8 opening the covenant.
... his demanding Parent. What has been learned? Perhaps the lesson central to all of God's teaching: the infinite value of a single human life. By demanding the one life that was infinitely valuable 8 opening the covenant.
Page 11
... infinite divine life, to which all the higher religions testify. I have attempted to sketch here the essential elements of Jewish theology. The One God's unity leads us to embrace the idea of the unity of all humanity, of all life and ...
... infinite divine life, to which all the higher religions testify. I have attempted to sketch here the essential elements of Jewish theology. The One God's unity leads us to embrace the idea of the unity of all humanity, of all life and ...
Page 12
... infinite life goes on as God wills. Liberal Jews seek lives not of eternal duration but of eternal significance. This is what they mean by ''salvation.'' And so, while ''eternal life'' is always a crucial teaching of Judaism in all its ...
... infinite life goes on as God wills. Liberal Jews seek lives not of eternal duration but of eternal significance. This is what they mean by ''salvation.'' And so, while ''eternal life'' is always a crucial teaching of Judaism in all its ...
Page 13
... infinite divine life lives in all finite persons, say little or nothing about the immortality of the individual personality. The good deed is to be done for its own sake, for love of God and neighbor, with no further reward hoped for or ...
... infinite divine life lives in all finite persons, say little or nothing about the immortality of the individual personality. The good deed is to be done for its own sake, for love of God and neighbor, with no further reward hoped for or ...
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