Faith And Fratricide

Since the Nazi holocaust took the lives of a third of the Jewish people of the world, the Christian Church has been engaged in a self-examination of its own historical role in the creation of anti-semitism. In this major contribution to that search, theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether explores the roots of anti-semitism from new perspectives.

A groundbreaking work from "Time" magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief combines a dazzling narrative with a bold insight--that the deep divisions within both Israeli and Palestinian societies must be resolved before true peace can be achieved.

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

No one would disagree with the assessment that Christians, over the centuries, have been guilty of anti-Semitism, sometimes with barbarous results. The real question is not whether individual Christians have been anti-Semites, but whether anti-Semitism is somehow ingrained in the very roots of Christianity, in its very essence. Rosemary Ruether has declared that anti-Semitism is the other side of Christology, the inevitable fallout of placing Jesus at the right hand of the Father.The contributors to this volume consider that larger question from several vantage points. Their findings are vitally important for Christians and Jews alike. Not only do they explore the beginnings of Christian anti-Semitism, they help us understand the dynamics of the religious impulse for all peoples and all times.The contributors to this volume include John C. Meagher, Douglas R.A. Hare, Lloyd Gaston, John T. Townsend, David Efroymson, Monika K. Hellwig, Gregory Baum, John T. Pawlikowski, Douglass J. Hall, Alan T. Davies, Terence R. Anderson, and Rosemary R. Ruether.

A rare book that combines searing passion with a subject that has affected all of our lives. "Chicago Tribune" Novelist, cultural critic, and former priest James Carroll marries history with memoir as he maps the two-thousand-year course of the Church s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has sparked in his own life. Fascinating, brave, and sometimes infuriating ("Time"), this dark history is more than a chronicle of religion. It is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture to create a deeply felt work ("San Francisco Chronicle") as Carroll wrangles with centuries of strife and tragedy to reach a courageous and affecting reckoning with difficult truths."

"A scholarly but eminently readable tracing of the sources and recurring themes of anti-Semitism."--

Reluctant Witnesses: Jews and the Christian Imagination is an analysis of the ancient Christian myth that casts Jews as a 'witness-people', and this myth's presence in contemporary religious discourse. It treats diverse products of the Christian imagination, including systematic theology, works of fiction, and popular writings on biblical prophecy. The book demonstrates that the witness-people myth, which was first articulated by Augustine and which determined official attitudes towards Jews in medieval Christendom, remains a powerful force in the Christian imagination.