Representatives Of Judaism Research Articles

Introducing Teenagers to a Dialogue with Judaism as the Task of School Catechesis

This analysis proves that introducing teenagers to a dialogue with Judaism is one of catechesis’s tasks. This task has been outlined in the post-conciliar documents of the Catholic Church. It underlines the spiritual ties between Catholic people and the Jews and promotes forming an attitude of openness towards followers of the Mosaic religion. It also contributes to mitigating anti-Semitism among Catholic teenagers. At the same time, it raises interest in Jewish traditions and culture. In the religion syllabus in lower and post-secondary schools we can come across numerous references (mainly indirect) to Judaism. The focus on passing honest knowledge about Judaism can be also clearly visible. In this way, formation of the cognitive element of inter-religious dialogue takes place. On the other hand, less attention is devoted to other components of this attitude such as the emotional and behavioural elements. That is why there is a demand to complete the lacking elements by watching films and having discussions. The above mentioned multimedia materials called “The religion lesson” have been prepared to satisfy this need.Great importance is also attached to creating situations that allow Christian teenagers to participate in meetings with the Jews. It can be organized in the form of Days of Judaism and panel discussions with Jews and distinguished contemporary theologians and philosophers. Open meetings with representatives of Judaism are a great opportunity to perceive the Jews as “older brethren in the faith”. They let young people discover the cultural wealth and vision of Judaism and teach teenagers respect for the religious beliefs of the Jews. Thereby, they can contribute to the change of mentality of young participants of catechesis in their approach to Judaism. It is worth referring to the works of Jewish culture in these activities. It is the cultural heritage that comprises a great reference point to showing the strong Judaic roots of Christian culture. Thus, it is necessary, for the topics in Judaism proposed for religious syllabuses and catechetical material to be closely connected with organizing meetings of young Catholics with followers of the Mosaic religion. Only this kind of experience can contribute to an authentic inter-religious dialogue.

Religious Foundations of Western Civilization: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (review)

Reviewed by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Ludwig von Mises Institute Religious Foundations of Western Civilization: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Edited by Jacob Neusner. (Nashville: Abingdon Press. 2006. Pp. xvi, 686. Paperback.) With Religious Foundations of Western Civilization, Jacob Neusner has assembled a substantial volume of writings, from a dozen contributors, on the three monotheistic religions of the West—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The essays in this book cover historical, theological, and philosophical topics, and consider each religion in itself as well as the historical interaction of the three religions in the context of Western civilization. Shaded sections include excerpts from important primary sources, from antiquity to the recent past. Neusner has navigated a sensitive topic with brilliance and sensitivity: each of these religious traditions is treated fairly and respectfully, yet without omitting the historical blemishes on each tradition's record. Students doubtless think of these three religions as inveterate antagonists, or at least inherently unfriendly. But in his discussion of Averroes, Maimonides, and Aquinas, Seymour Feldman reminds readers that "during the medieval period there existed a continuous and mutually profitable conversation amongst some of the intellectual giants of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" (p. 209). (The essay is followed by excerpts from Averroes' Decisive Treatise, Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, and Aquinas' Summa Theologica.) At a stroke, Feldman addresses the myth—still widespread among students and the general public—of the intellectually moribund Middle Ages and demonstrates the possibility of fruitful intellectual exchange among representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A section on "Zionism, Imperialism, and Nationalism" includes essays entitled "Zionism," "Christian Imperialism," and "Political Islam." Of particular note is Neusner's sound and dispassionate overview of Zionism, a phenomenon that initially attracted the opposition of Orthodox and Reform Judaism, both of which viewed the Zionist program as a secularization of the divine promise that the Jews would one day be restored to the land. Neusner concludes that there is "no more probative evidence" of the ongoing significance of religion in Western civilization than this fact: "Much of the history of the West from World War II to the present would be written in the conflict between Zionism and the State of Israel and Arab nationalism and the state of Palestine" (p. 388). [End Page 866] Toward the book's close we are treated to three worthwhile studies regarding the "modernization"—an unfortunate, ideologically loaded term—of each of these religions over the past several centuries. Islam comes under particular scrutiny here, largely by way of the primary sources for this section, which include an eighteen-page excerpt from the writings of Fazlur Rahman, the Islamic modernist who was forced to flee Pakistan in 1968 because of the hostility his views incited. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of modern ecumenism. In Bruce Chilton's essay, subtitled "Christianity Meets Other Religions," we have the book's weakest contribution. Caught outside his area of specialty, Chilton discusses nineteenth-century economic history as if the great standard-of-living debate had never occurred and R. M. Hartwell had never taken up his pen, and his coverage of Vatican Council II, necessarily brief, is superficial. Worse, we do not actually read anything in the essay about Christianity's meetings with other religions—quite an interesting topic, that—apart from a couple of throwaway lines in the concluding paragraph and a brief reference to "militant Islam" as allegedly "a direct consequence of Christian policies of war and oppression" (p. 616). Although Islamic anger today may be attributable, at least in part, to Western and particularly American foreign policy, that policy is neither presented nor conceived of as expressly "Christian." And if Chilton is instead making oblique reference to the Crusades, they were such a minor event in Islamic history that as recently as the eighteenth century hardly any Muslim at all would have heard of them. Still, the excellent essays, well-chosen primary sources, and useful discussion questions make Religious Foundations of Western Civilization ideal for course...

Is There a Warrant for Levinas's Talmudic Readings?

AbstractLevinas's Talmudic readings have played an important role in defending the claim that the discipline of modern Jewish philosophy cannot be reduced to a list of assimilationist thinkers. This article argues that this claim is defendable, but only if the premise of the claim ceases to be the content of Levinas's Talmudic readings: "The Temptation of Temptation" wrongly takes its sugya as representative of Judaism as a whole, the differing mathematical calculations between Levinas and the sugya he treats in "The Pact" suggest that the Talmud assumes a Rousseauian amour-propre, and "And God Created Woman" implies that Jewish ethics is not opposed to Jews' assimilation. I instead suggest that Levinas's Talmudic readings serve to promote the fecundity of Judaism; it is only through such "bad" readings that historical determinism can be conquered, and a messianic future becomes possible.

Das Verständnis des Todes bei Ben Sira

On the background and within the framework of the traditional Israelite-Jewish anthropology Ben Sira advises his pupils and readers to accept death as a fate and to draw the consequences of the fact that human beings have no other life than the present one. For the Lord the shortness of human life gives reason for his mercy, if they return to his commands. On the other hand the way a man dies is a parameter for God's judgement. Apart from the fact that everybody is responsible for his fate the transitory character of life gives reason to enjoy oneself using his property for gifts to his friend and the embellishment of the own transitory days. But he should as well take care of his name, for a good name is just what may survive. In regard to the death of other people one should not withdraw from a dying, but after his death not lengthen the mourning for this would weaken himself whithout helping the dead one. This in the whole conservative outlook of Ben Sira protected him against philosophical and apocalpytic speculations, which he judged as devorced from reality. All what a humans may need for their life became revealed to them by the Lord. To act according to his commandments is better than to look out for fresh revelations. So we may understand Ben Sira as a representative of Judaism as a religion of reason in a transitional age, even if we would credit to his unnamed opponents that they had some idea about the transcendent mystery of life.