Judaism and Christianity: New Directions for Dialogue and Understanding

by Alan Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner

Overview

This volume treats the interrelationship between Judaism and Christianity from the first centuries and into modern times, paying particular attention to these faiths’ social, cultural, and theological interactions. The issues covered range from the formation of Jewish and Christian ideology in the context of Roman paganism to the ways in which Christian culture and theology of the medieval and modern periods form a backdrop to the creation of Jewish identity. While the historical periods and issues discussed are diverse, the result is to suggest the importance of our recognizing the close development of Judaism and Christianity. Written by top scholars in Judaic and Christian studies, these essays reflect on how the two faiths related to and were shaped by each other as they evolved in shared historical and cultural contexts, even as each maintained its own distinctive ideologies and beliefs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004179387
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/30/2009
Series:	Brill Reference Library of Judaism Series , #28
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Alan J. Avery-Peck is Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Judaic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Specializing in Jewish history and religion in the first six centuries C.E., he is a co-editor of The Encyclopaedia of Judaism (second edition in 4 vols., Brill, 2005) and The Mishnah in Contemporary Perspective (in 2 vols., Brill, 2002-2006). He is editor of the journal The Review of Rabbinic Judaism.

Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, Annandale-Upon-Hudson, New York. A member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, and life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, in England, he is the internationally recognized author of hundreds of books on Judaism.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction

Renewing Religious Disputation in Quest of Theological Truth Jacob Neusner 3

The First Centuries

Mosaics as Midrash: The Zodiacs of the Ancient Synagogues and the Conflict between Judaism and Christianity Yaffa Englard 11

Judaic Social Teaching in Christian and Pagan Context Jacob Neusner 29

Planting Christian Trees in Jewish Soil Herbert W. Basser 61

Rabbinic Texts in the Exegesis of the New Testament Miguel Pérez Fernández 83

Christianity, Diaspora Judaism, and Roman Crisis Robert M. Price 109

The Medieval Period

Newton, Maimonidean José Faur 127

Moslem, Christian, and Jewish Cultural Interaction in Sefardic Talmudic Interpretation Daniel Boyarin 163

Don Quixote-Talmudist and Mucho Más José Faur 197

The Modern Period

Torah and Culture: H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture after Fifty Years: A Judaic Response Jacob Nusner 217

Five Types of Judaism? Reflections on the Inner Logic of Judaism as Revealed by Niebuhr's Phenomenological Typology Evan M. Zuesse 243

The Agenda of Dabru Emet Jon D. Levenson 265

Index of Names 293

Index of Ancient Sources 295