Jews Confucians And Protestants

In Jews, Confucians, and Protestants: Cultural Capital and the End of Multiculturalism, Lawrence E. Harrison takes the politically incorrect stand that not all cultures are created equally. Analyzing the performance of 117 countries, grouped by predominant religion, Harrison argues for the superiority of those cultures that emphasize Jewish, Confucian, or Protestant values.

The book sheds light on various chapters in the long history of Protestant-Jewish relations, from the Reformation to the present. Going beyond questions of antisemitism and religious animosity, it aims to disentangle some of the intricate perceptions, interpretations, and emotions that have characterized contacts between Protestantism and Judaism, and between Jews and Protestants. While some papers in the book address Luther's antisemitism and the NS-Zeit, most papers broaden the scope of the investigation: Protestant-Jewish theological encounters shaped not only antisemitism but also the Jewish Reform movement and Protestant philosemitic post-Holocaust theology; interactions between Jews and Protestants took place not only in the German lands but also in the wider Protestant universe; theology was crucial for the articulation of attitudes toward Jews, but music and philosophy were additional spheres of creativity that enabled the process of thinking through the relations between Judaism and Protestantism. By bringing together various contributions on these and other aspects, the book opens up directions for future research on this intricate topic, which bears both historical significance and evident relevance to our own time.

This volume takes up the problem of relations between the various Protestant churches and Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel. Among the subjects discussed are: the attitudes of the Evangelical movement toward Jews and Israel; German Protestantism during World War II; mainstream Protestant churches and the question of Israeli policy; Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ;" and the history of relations between Protestantism and Judaism and they developed since the Reformation up to the present day.

In Jews, Judaism, and Success, Robert Eisen attempts to solve a long-standing mystery that has fascinated many: How did Jews become such a remarkably successful minority in the modern Western world? Eisen argues that Jews achieved such success because they were unusually well-prepared for it by their religion – in particular, Rabbinic Judaism, or the Judaism of the rabbis. Rooted in the Talmud, this form of Judaism instilled in Jews key values that paved the way for success in modern Western society: autonomy, freedom of thought, worldliness, and education. The book carefully analyses the evolution of these four values over the past two thousand years in order to demonstrate that they had a longer and richer history in Jewish culture than in Western culture. The book thus disputes the common assumption that Rabbinic Judaism was always an obstacle to Jews becoming modernized. It demonstrates that while modern Jews rejected aspects of Rabbinic Judaism, they also retained some of its values, and these values in particular led to Jewish success. Written for a broad range of readers, Jews, Judaism, and Success provides unique insights on the meaning of success and how it is achieved in the modern world.

Examines the historic development of Jewish religions thought in the cross-cultural context of the world's major faiths. The law, ethics, and mysticism of Judaism are compared with their counterparts in Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and the secular formulations of religion in modern times.

Culture Matters in Russia—and Everywhere discusses modernization, democratization, and economic and political reforms in Russia and elsewhere, and asserts that these reforms can be accomplished through the reframing of cultural values, attitudes, and institutions. The contributors—who include three Nobel Laureates—strive to analyze and understand the role of culture in modernization, particularly relevant to Russian culture as tensions between Russia and the West heighten to levels not seen since the Cold War.