God S Bargain With The Jews

The fascinating history of the Jews' covenant with God. "God's Bargain with the Jews (and How They Kept It)" describes Judaism from Moses to today, across cultures and continents. Over three thousand years, how has Judaism interpreted and acted on God's commandments and promise?

This updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.

You're no idiot, of course. You know that Judaism began with Abraham and that Moses led the children out of slavery in Egypt. But when it comes to knowing who Elijah, Esther, and Judah Maccabee were, and their significance to Judaism, you feel like you've been wandering in the desert for 40 years. Don't feel Jewish guilt just yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Jewish History and Culture provides you with a complete, authoritative account of the Jewish people—from Abraham, Moses, and King David to Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Rabin.

Tyerman gives a sweeping new vision of one of history's most astounding events: the Crusades. Drawing on all of the most recent scholarship, and told with great verve and authority, "God's War" is the definitive account of a fascinating and horrifying story that continues to haunt our contemporary world.

While Christians and Jews have always been aware of their religious connections -- historical continuity, overlapping theology, shared scriptures -- that awareness has traditionally been infected by centuries of mutual suspicion and hostility. As this important volume shows, however, theologians and scholars of Judaism and Christianity alike are now radically rethinking the relation between their two covenant communities. "Jews and Christians" presents the best of this work, introducing readers to current attempts to construct a coherent Jewish theology of Christianity and a Christian theology of Judaism. Here are leading Christian and Jewish thinkers who have engaged in extensive conversation, who take each other's work seriously, and who avoid the pitfall common to Jewish-Christian dialogue -- watering down distinctive beliefs to accommodate both partners. Indeed, these pages show how the new theological exchange goes to the roots of that olive tree of which both Judaism and Christianity are branches, and the book as a whole represents post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian dialogue at the highest theological level. In addition to eight major chapters, "Jews and Christians" includes a moving testimony by Reidar Dittmann on his experience of the Holocaust and reprints the 2000 manifesto "Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity," followed by incisive Christian and Jewish responses. Contributors: Carl E. Braaten David B. Burrell Barry Cytron Reidar Dittmann David Bentley Hart Robert W. Jenson Jon D. Levenson George Lindbeck Richard John Neuhaus David Novak Peter Ochs Wolfhart Pannenberg R. Kendall Soulen Marvin R. Wilson

In the 12th century, Moses Maimonides wrote a long letter to one of his rabbinical students discussing a variety of philosophical matters concerning theology. The text tries to clarify some of the contradictions between the literal meaning of the Torah and its philosophical explications. This work is still of interest to contemporary philosophers and theologians.

As an old proverb puts it, "Two Jews, three opinions." In the long, rich, tumultuous history of the Jewish people, this characteristic contentiousness has often been extended even unto Heaven. Arguing with God is a highly original and utterly absorbing study that skates along the edge of this theological thin ice--at times verging dangerously close to blasphemy--yet also a source of some of the most poignant and deeply soulful expressions of human anguish and yearning. The name Israel literally denotes one who "wrestles with God." And, from Jacob's battle with the angel to Elie Wiesel's haunting questions about the Holocaust that hang in the air like still smoke over our own age, Rabbi Laytner admirably details Judaism's rich and pervasive tradition of calling God to task over human suffering and experienced injustice. It is a tradition that originated in the biblical period itself. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and others all petitioned for divine intervention in their lives, or appealed forcefully to God to alter His proposed decree. Other biblical arguments focused on personal or communal suffering and anger: Jeremiah, Job, and certain Psalms and Lamentations. Rabbi Laytner delves beneath the surface of these "blasphemies" and reveals how they implicitly helped to refute the claims of opponent religions and advance Jewish doctrines and teachings.

Christians must reexamine God's Word and become equipped to reach out to and receive Jewish people with the love of God in their hearts.