TRT3661 – Trinity Orthodox Theological Foundation

Salvation Is from the Jews

Christianity and Judaism in Theological Perspective and Dialogue

Information and Readings for Auditors

Course Syllabus

Attending Class

Class will be held on Wednesday evenings at 7pm in Larkin 340.

Required Texts

The following book should be acquired for this course as it will be read nearly in its entirety. It is readily and inexpensively available for purchase (including as an ebook), or to borrow from good libraries. A copy will also be placed on reserve at Trinity College Library.

Levine, Amy-Jill. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2007.

Students may also wish to acquire the following book which will be useful for the short exegetical paper (if you wish to do that assignment). A copy will also be placed on reserve at Trinity College Library.

Brettler, Marc Zvi, and Amy-Jill Levine. The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2020.

All other required readings, whether chapters from books or articles, are available online and will be posted below.

Course Readings (Why Three Lists?)

The readings for each week are divided into three lists:

A List Readings: These are the required readings for the course. It is essential that you prepare these carefully ahead of each class discussion. You can meet all the course expectations by focusing only on these texts.

B List Readings: These recommended further or extended readings are provided to give you additional background materials for the topics of each week. You are invited to read these to explore the themes in more depth, and to choose and draw upon them for your final literature review assignment (if you choose to submit one). They may be referred to in passing in class discussions, but they will not be dwelt upon as not everyone will have read them.

C List Readings: These readings, often full books or volumes of articles, are given for those who are interested in pursuing the subject matter to a higher level, in their own time, or perhaps in future research or at an advanced degree level. They will not form part of our class discussions, though they can also be used for your literature review.

Week 1: Course Introduction

Topics

Course introduction
Visit of theology librarian Allison Graham: how to find and evaluate sources in rapidly-evolving scholarship
Course methodology, values, and expectations
Christianity and anti-Judaism – defining the problem
The Lord’s prayer as a quintessential Jewish prayer

Readings

A List Readings

“Introduction” to The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin
“A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity,” preface to Christianity in Jewish Terms
“What to Seek and What to Avoid in Jewish-Christian Dialogue,” introduction to Christianity in Jewish Terms, by David Novak
“Memo of Spelling of Antisemitism” by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

B List Readings

National Cathedral Sermon on 7 March 2021 by Amy-Jill Levine
Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2023, by the League for Human Rights, B’nai Brith Canada
Translate Hate: Stopping Antisemitism Starts with Understanding It, by the American Jewish Committee
- Note also the annotated version for Catholics prepared by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

C List Readings

Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism, Sol Golberg, Scott Ury and Kalman Weiser, eds.

We didn’t get to the final part of the proposed agenda, “The Lord’s prayer as a quintessential Jewish prayer.” If you are interested, you can watch the following excerpt from the course offered in a previous year:

Week 2: Jesus the Jew

Topics

Jesus, the faithful, Torah-observant Jew
Jesus as Jewish teacher with Jewish disciples
Jesus, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots in the Synoptic Gospels
Galileans and Judaeans in the Gospel of John
Jewish feasts and themes in the structure and proclamation of the gospel of Jesus

Readings

A List Readings

“Jesus and Judaism,” chapter 1 of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine
“Jesus Kept Kosher,” chapter 3 of The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin

B List Readings

“Jews in the Land During the Second Temple Period,” chapter 7 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Steven Werlin
“Early Christianity in a Jewish Context,” chapter 9 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Julie Galambush

C List Readings

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity, by Paula Fredriksen