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
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
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity, by Paula Fredriksen
Week 3: The Religion of the Apostles: Narrative Theologies of Second Temple Judaism
Topics
Polytheism, monotheism, henotheism, monolatry
Divine council and spiritual powers
God’s people Israel and the nations
Messianic age and expectation – in the texts of the Old Testament (Hebrew and expanded Septuagint canon), pseudepigrapha, and the traditions and writings of the eventual Talmud
Symbolic theology of Second Temple Judaism – language of incarnation and spirit
Chapters 1, “Divine Father and Son,” 2, “The Spirit, Presence, and Name of God,” 8, “God’s People Israel,” 9, “the Law of God,” from The Religion of the Apostles, by Stephen De Young
“Paul, Jews, and Gentiles,” by Michael Wyschogrod, in Abraham’s Promise: Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations
(NB: Depending on your available time, you may choose to read the texts from either Boccaccini or Nanos.)
B List Readings
Chapters 3, “The New Testament and Anti-Judaism,” and 4, “Stereotyping Judaism,” from The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine
The remainder of Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity, by Daniel Boyarin
Jesus in the Talmud, by Peter Schäfer
Other articles from James D.G. Dunn, ed., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways AD 70-135
Week 6: Typology Bad and Good: Augustine, Faustus, and the Rules of Tyconius
Topics
Bad typology and the undermining of historic Israel
Marcion and the early patristic response
Augustine, Faustus and anti-Judaism
Rules of Tyconius as a guide to good typology
Evaluation of the depiction of Jews in early Christian liturgical texts
Readings
A List Readings
“Introduction” and chapter 7, “Quo Vadis?” of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine (for background information on our guest speaker)
Week 7: Story of the Jews: Key Moments in Narrative Self-Understanding
Topics
Defining moments in the ongoing story of the Jewish people within an overall historical account from Jewish perspective
Readings
A List Readings
“The Jewish Holy Days,” chapter 37 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Stanley Schachter
[skim read only – noting that you will choose a particular period to focus on for the historical study assignment] A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood, by Raymond P. Scheindlin, chapters 3 to 8 (pp 51-198) [alternatively] read the B List readings below, or skim through the relevant volumes (5 to 7) of The Cambridge History of Judaism
“Antisemitism and Anti-Jewish Hostility,” chapter 26 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Richard S. Levy
“Persecution — Jewish and Christian,” infamous post-Kristallnacht radio address by Charles Coughlin (you can also listen to this audio extract to get a sense of his vile work) [warning: contains Antisemitic content]
“Judaism and the Holocaust,” chapter 5 of Salvation Is from the Jews: The Role of Judaism in Salvation History from Abraham to the Second Coming, by Roy H. Schoeman
“American Jews and the Jewish State,” chapter 28 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by David Bamberger
Zionism and Judaism: A New Theory, by David Novak
Week 10: Towards a Truer and More Faithful Christian Theology of Israel
Topics
Witness of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Monk Lev Gillet, et al.
Drawing key theological insights together into an integrated Christian theology of Israel that is faithful to the Biblical narrative and significance of God’s chosen people
Readings
A List Readings
For this asynchronous class week, please read the following (for the first class assignment):
“Israel – Judaism and Christianity: Covenants of Redemption” by Irving Greenberg
“Israel, Judaism, and Christianity” by David Fox Sandmel
“Israel and the Church: A Christian Response to Irving Greenberg’s Covenantal Pluralism” by R. Kendall Soulen
Chapters 1 to 3, “The Ecclesiological Challenge of Nostra Aetate,” 2, “A Stranger in a Strange (Yet Familiar) Land,” and 3, “Lumen Gentium, Gloriam Israel,” from Searching Her Own Mystery: Nostra Aetate, the Jewish People, and the Identity of the Church, by Mark S. Kinzer
Communion in the Messiah: Studies in the Relationship between Judaism and Christianity by Lev Gillet
Chapters 4 (“God”), 5 (“Scripture”), 6 (“Commandment”), 8 (“Worship”), 9 (“Suffering”), 10 (“Embodiment”), 11 (“Redemption”), 12 (“Sin and Repentance”), 13 (“Image of God”) from Christianity in Jewish Terms
Week 11: The Jewish Gospel and Christian Identity
In place of our class this week, we will attend together the annual Jakob Jocz lecture at Wycliffe College, to be given by Dr Jennifer M. Rosner. The lecture will be recorded and made available afterwards for online students to listen to.
Wednesday 26 March, 7pm to 9pm
Jesus was Jewish, and God’s enduring covenant with the people of Israel is central for understanding the essence of the Christian gospel. These two theological fundamentals present a host of questions about Christian identity and discipleship. In Christ, is there any ongoing meaningful distinction between Jew and Gentile? How can Christians faithfully follow Jesus, the Jewish Messiah? What does it look like for Christian faith to honour both unity in Christ, and the very real diversity that defines us and our communities? How do social and cultural particulars inform faithful discipleship? How does all of this relate to the God of Israel? Finally, what does all of this look like concretely in our daily lives of faith?
Featured Speaker: Dr Jennifer M. Rosner is affiliate associate professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. She also serves on the faculty of Azusa Pacific University, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, and The King’s University. Her areas of expertise include contemporary Jewish-Christian relations, Judaism, and systematic theology. Her current book project is tentatively titled The Jewish Gospel and Christian Identity: An Exploration in Contextual Discipleship (Baylor, forthcoming). She is also the author of Finding Messiah: A Journey Into the Jewishness of the Gospel (IVP, 2022) and Healing the Schism: Karl Barth, Franz Rosenzweig and the New Jewish-Christian Encounter (Lexham, 2021; Fortress Press, 2015).
Week 12: Addressing Anti-Judaism in Preaching, Teaching, and Worship
Topics
Addressing anti-Judaism in preaching, teaching, and worship
Case studies (choose one to focus on):
Liturgical case study: revisiting and reforming Byzantine Rite liturgical texts
Preaching and teaching case study: renewing Lutheran theology
Ecclesiology and Jewish-Christian relations case study: rethinking Anglican ecclesial identity
Liturgical Case Study Materials [Orthodox Christian]
Marilyn Salmon, Preaching without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Judaism.
Video
This ELCA document was produced after many years of discussion of anti-Jewish aspects of Lutheran theology, liturgy and pastoral practice as “a tragic contributor to the wider Western cultural antisemitism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” This practical guide aims to provide a new vision for teaching and preaching about Jewish tradition and its significance. Leading this video discussion is the Rev Dr Peter Pettit, Lutheran minister and teaching pastor at St Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa, who led the ELCA Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations which authored the document.
The main questions of this encounter were practical, addressing the problem of framing the “newness” of Jesus and Christianity by contrasting these with his Jewish tradition and context (for instance, “Since Jesus is the light of the world, Jews are portrayed as being in the dark”). Dr Pettit showed how this document creates a system of counterbalances to this language, primarily through historical-critical and biblical studies. He emphasised unbiased studies of Scriptural texts, particularly St Paul who needs to be read “before Augustine and Luther,” as well as the necessity to avoid anachronisms “between the time of Jesus and the New Testament writings, between the first century and 21st century.” Thereby Jesus can be understood as “a Jew within Judaism, not terminating it,” keeping “Torah as a lifestyle,” and not contrasting himself with Israel, but rather offering a prophetic word and challenge in the same vein as Jewish prophets had before him. Dr Pettit described how the guide revises the traditional Lutheran confessional reading of Paul: Luther used Paul to oppose the pope, while Paul himself never “opposed Judaism with Jesus,” instead criticising it from within, using its own language; it is an intra-Jewish discussion to which the nations are invited. Dr Pettit also demonstrated how the document reinterprets other key concepts of Lutheran theology around law and grace, promise and fulfilment, on which anti-Judaic theological discourse has relied for centuries.
By carefully rereading the New Testament and early Christian tradition and reframing theological presuppositions based upon that tradition, the document is able to make informed recommendations for renewed teaching and pastoral practice. It has even begun to influence a new, historically-sensitive translation of the Revised Common Lectionary used in a number of western churches, called “Reading from the Roots.”
Ecclesiology and Jewish-Christian Relations Case Study Materials [Anglican]
Jonathan Kaplan, Jennifer Rosner, and David Rudolph, Covenant and the People of God: Essays in Honor of Mark Kinzer.
Video
In this video, Professor Emeritus of Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Rev Dr Ephraim Radner presents the document, its history and main ideas within the broader context of the development of attitudes towards Jews and Judaism in the theology, pastoral practice and worship of the Anglican Church — starting from open antisemitism (“Jews are degrading Christian culture of England”), through “philosemitic evangelism” (proselytising activity, conversion of Jews), to revising negative images of Jews in church teaching and liturgy and accepting Jewish-Christian relations as a mystery that can be resolved only in the age to come.
Dr Radner described what the document sets out as four “approaches” or “theological frameworks” of the relations between Judaism and Christianity reflecting various positions within the Church of England. These capture stages of historical development in the church’s Jewish mission and relations. In the emerging preferred view, the Church of England accepts as undeniable the “continuing participation of the Jewish people in Israel as God’s gift and God’s creation” and that “there is a mystery here that transcends its understanding in history.” This approach has already influenced changes in the language of worship as well as further theological reflection, informed by the questions that are posed throughout the document.
In our ensuing discussion, the key questions raised centred on Christian identity in relation to Israel, Jews, and Judaism. How do we identify ourselves? Are we Christians, distinct from Judaism and Jews, who are simply struggling to conquer antisemitism and exhibit openness and love towards Jews? Or is the relationship deeper and more fundamental? What does it mean for the church to be Israel, participating in God’s covenant with Israel? How do we construe the mystery of that shared covenant with the ongoing Judaism — as something we just can’t puzzle out or understand for now, or as a true mystery in the sense of paradox in which both claims to being “Israel” are true? And who then are Jews for us — “we” or “they”?
