Product Overview
Roots and Branches is a source book for understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity, the Jewishness of Jesus, Replacement Theology, and Anti-Semitism. It is a comprehensive text focusing on the primary theological issues that concern Christians and Jews. Encyclopedic in scope, this resource text will help students of the Bible understand the innate connection between Judaism and Christianity. It is designed specifically for use in academic, church, and synagogue courses or adult education programs. The reader will learn: The difference between Hebraic and Western thinking' How Judaism understands the remission of sin; The ancient sacrificial system and its relevance today; The Jewish understanding of suffering and vicarious atonement; The difference between the historical Jesus and the theological Jesus; How the story of Jesus is related to the story of Isaac in the Torah; How the miracles of Jesus parallel the miracles of Elijah and Elisha; How Jesus teaching methods are firmly rooted in the Rabbinic tradition; The Biblical concepts of messiah and salvation; How Judaism understands faith, works, and grace; How Jesus teachings and the spiritual practices of Jesus are firmly rooted in the Jewish tradition; The theological parallels and differences between Judaism and Christianity; The roots of Replacement Theology and Anti-Semitism; The fulfillment of prophesy and the final redemption from a Jewish perspective; In March 2008 Time Magazine cited Re-Judaizing Jesus as one of 10 Ideas That are Changing the World. Rabbi David Zaslow believes that re-Judaizing Jesus can not only strengthen both Christianity and Judaism, but also reduce the millennium-old anti-Semitism based on de-Judaizing Jesus in the first place. Of his two decade long project, Rabbi David writes, This book is a small effort to promote mutual respect and understanding between faiths. The time has come to advance interfaith relations from simple tolerance to a sense of mutual interdependence where members of faith communities can acknowledge how much we have to learn from each other. My teacher, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi calls this higher level of interfaith relations by the term radical ecumenism. I hope this book contributes to that aim.
