Rabbi Gordon Fuller and Dr. Christian van Gorder are committed to helping people of both faith traditions gain, as far as is possible, a participant's appreciation of those from the other community. This means addressing misconceptions and misrepresentations as well as challenging widely held assumptions. Jews and Christians Together delves into the strained relationship between these two faith communities and exposes why these communities need to come to a better understanding and appreciation of the other. Events such as the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania demonstrate why society must address and foil anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism wherever and whenever such views appear. The efforts of Fuller and van Gorder to explore these issues with their own faith communities can provide a helpful starting-point to confront trends of increasing hate and bigotry towards Jews today. Fuller and van Gorder ask us to acknowledge the marred history of Christianity and anti-Semitism, so that we can explore healthy Jewish-Christian dialogue and gain a shared and constructive mutual respect.
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A. Christian van Gorder. Jews and Christians Together
Jews and Christians Together
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Starting Points for. Jewish–Christian Dialogue
Gods of Two Mountaintops
Living in a Broken World
Covenant, Atonement, and Sacrifice
Prophecies about the Messiah
The World to Come
Revelation and the Bible
The Sharing of Rituals
Messianic Jewry
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism
Teaching the Holocaust
Zionism and Israel
Conclusion—Healing the World
Endnotes
Timeline of Events in Jewish History
Glossary of Selected Jewish Terms, Subjects, and Names
Selected Bibliography
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An Invitation to Mutual Respect
A. Christian van Gorder
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For some conservative Christians, Judaism is reduced to the historically frozen religiosity of the Pharisees who lived during the time of Jesus. One student who visited the synagogue mused, “I felt like I was travelling back in time to the Old Testament. I felt like I got to see my roots. It was so cool.”13 Meeting Jews, in this view, is like meeting ancient religious dinosaurs. When one student visited the synagogue, they realized that “Jews truly value Old Testament culture and practices instead of chasing after modern advances and conveniences.”14 It can be that simple for those who have spent their entire lives hearing about “Jews” in their Sunday school classes. Another student wrote, “I am so accustomed to seeing Christians devoting themselves to worship, prayer, and teaching, and it was surprising to see people from another religion being so devout. This really opened my eyes and spurred my inner questioning about why other people believe as they do.”15 Students are sometimes surprised to discover genuine piety within the synagogue, perhaps based on a superficial reading of the Gospels in which “the Jews” are sometimes presented as a hypocritical foil to the heroic role of Jesus as he confronts formalistic and sanctimonious religiosity.
Christians often learn about the general category of “Judaism” through their church and Sunday school classes, in which biblical-era typecasts have been the unquestioned norm. It has even been assumed that North American Jews still sacrifice animals in their neighborhood temples and dream of one day restoring sacrifices at the temple of Jerusalem so that countless gallons of sheep’s blood can soothe the wrath of God. Some repeat the claim of televangelist Pat Robertson that Jews somewhere are secretly breeding red heifers so that they can be sacrificed in Jerusalem’s soon-to-be-rebuilt temple. One student wrote, “Judaism was about the same today as it was during the times of the Bible, minus the Temple.”16
