bilateral

Boys, Mary C. Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2000.

A history lesson in the development of Christian polemical and supersessionist relationship to Judaism, an alternative way to understand the context into which Jesus came and the development Christianity out of it, and calls for liturgical revisions that would bring practice into harmony with Roman Catholicism’s post-Holocaust and post-Vatican II theology. Scholarly but approachable, and certainly well worth reading.

Bruteau, Barbara, ed. Jesus Through Jewish Eyes: Rabbis and Scholars Engage an Ancient Brother in a New Conversation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001.

Contributions by twenty women and men demonstrate the range of Jewish attitude, and clarify some of the issues at stake.

Cox, Harvey. Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian’s Journey Through the Jewish Year. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Cox, a Christian scholar, uses the Jewish calendar and rites of passage as points from which to reflect on what he has learned from his marriage to a Jew and their efforts to provide their son a Jewish upbringing.

Frymer-Kensky, Tikva, et al. Christianity in Jewish Terms. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.

A collection of essays by a variety of voices, arranged to move systematically through such key concepts in both Judaism and Christianity as God, scripture, worship, redemption, and more. Each topic features two essays by Jewish thinkers, and a response essay by a Christian.

Kogan, Michael S. “Toward a Jewish Theology of Christianity”, in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 32:1 (Winter 1995).

This excellent essay has been translated into a number of languages, and is being expanded into book-length form. It is also available on the website of the Institute for Jewish and Christian Studies http://www.icjs.org/scholars/kogan.html

Kushner, Lawrence. Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2001.

This short book could provide Muslims as well as Christians “a window into the Jewish soul.” Four sections focus on the Jewish understanding of Creation; Torah study; the notion of tikkun olam (repairing the world); and, teshuva (repentance).

Neusner, Jacob. A Rabbi Talks With Jesus: An Intermillennial, Interfaith Exchange. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

A Jewish scholar’s study of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Matthew, and through this, a presentation of the key issues in Jewish-Christian discussions.

Sandmel, David F. et al., Irreconcilable Differences?: A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2001.

Includes the text of Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity, a very important articulation of a Jewish theology of open-heartedness towards Christians and Christianity.

Jewish-Christian Dialogue