How did a Jewish teacher, healer, sage and
mystic become
the vehicle for so much hatred and harm directed against his own people?
the vehicle for so much hatred and harm directed against his own people?
“Dialogue is demanding and
difficult. It is often painful. It entails deep listening,
letting others define themselves and being willing to confront
and transform deep-rooted prejudices in ourselves. It requires
the courage to re-envision absolutely everything we tend to
cherish and protect, and to relinquish our entrenched
vainglorious ego attachments, our inflated sense of ‘I,
me and mine.’ This challenge to grow beyond tribalism, to
approach others in a fair and reasonable way, is an essential
step in our human evolution.”
—from the Invitation to the Reader
Judaism and Christianity have had a
volatile relationship in their two-thousand-year history.
Anger, rivalry, insensitivity, bloodshed and murder have marred
the special connection these two Abrahamic faiths share. In the
last several decades, scholars, activists, laypeople and clergy
have attempted to expose and eliminate the struggles between
Jews and Christians.
This collaborative effort brings together
the voices of Christian scholar Ron Miller and Jewish scholar
Laura Bernstein to further explore the roots of anti-Semitism
in Christian faith and scripture. In a probing interfaith
dialogue, Miller and Bernstein trace the Jewish-Christian
schism to its very source in the first book of the New
Testament, the Gospel of Matthew. Illuminating the often
misunderstood context of Matthew’s gospel—a
persecuted Christian minority writing some sixty years after
Jesus’s death—this examination of a foundational
Christian text discerns the ways in which the Jewishness of
Jesus was forgotten and Jews and Judaism became
Christianity’s foil. More important, it takes a renewed
look at Matthew with contemporary retellings that present a new
and better future of conciliation and compassion between the
two faith traditions.
“Startling in its innovative
approach … shatters the mold of most approaches to Gospel
commentary. It imaginatively yokes together historical
scholarship, literary freshness and commitment to
interreligious dialogue—all with a spiritual energy that
is unnervingly evocative for our turbulent times.”
—Rev.
Alan Race, editor in chief, Interreligious Insight: A Journal of Dialogue
and Engagement
“Excellent and insightful … a
fresh and dynamic model for Jewish-Christian collaboration.
This book is going to open minds and, more important, change
hearts.”
—Rabbi
Rami Shapiro, author of The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom
Literature: Selections Annotated and Explained
“Offers us sensitive reflections on
key religious texts that have produced pain and separation in
the past, and shows us a way through these texts to a more
wholesome and productive encounter between the two faith
communities. A welcome addition to the dialogue on
Christian-Jewish relations.”
—John T.
Pawlikowski, OSM, PhD, director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program Catholic
Theological Union, Chicago;
president, International Council of
Christians and Jews
Laura Bernstein,
a Jewish scholar, is active in interfaith ministry. She has
published articles and essays on spiritual practice, led
interfaith groups in sacred chant and meditation, and spent
five years in rabbinical studies at the Hebrew Seminary of the
Deaf in Skokie, Illinois.
Dr. Beatrice Bruteau has pioneered the integrated study of science,
mathematics, philosophy, and religion. She is the editor and
author of many books, including Jesus
Through Jewish Eyes and The Holy Thursday Revolution.
