Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism)

Was Jesus the founder of Christianity or a teacher of Judaism? When he argued the latter based on the New Testament, Abraham Geiger ignited an intense debate that began in nineteenth-century Germany but continues to this day.Geiger, a pioneer of Reform Judaism and a founder of Jewish studies, developed a Jewish version of Christian origins. He contended that Jesus was a member of the Pharisees, a progressive and liberalizing group within first-century Judaism, and that he taught nothing new or original. This argument enraged German Protestant theologians, some of whom produced a tragic counterargument based on racial theory.In this fascinating book, Susannah Heschel traces the genesis of Geiger's argument and examines the reaction to it within Christian theology. She concludes that Geiger initiated an intellectual revolt by the colonized against the colonizer, an attempt not to assimilate into Christianity by adopting Jesus as a Jew, but to overthrow Christian intellectual hegemony by claiming that Christianity—and all of Western civilization—was the product of Judaism.

Biographies & Memoirs

Heschel, Susannah

Leaders & Notable People

University of Chicago Press

Was Jesus the founder of Christianity or a teacher of Judaism? When he argued the latter based on the New Testament, Abraham Geiger ignited an intense debate that began in nineteenth-century Germany but continues to this day. Geiger, a pioneer of Reform Judaism and a founder of Jewish studies, developed a Jewish version of Christian origins. He contended that Jesus was a member of the Pharisees, a progressive and liberalizing group within first-century Judaism, and that he taught nothing new or original. This argument enraged German Protestant theologians, some of whom produced a tragic counterargument based on racial theory. In this fascinating book, Susannah Heschel traces the genesis of Geiger's argument and examines the reaction to it within Christian theology. She concludes that Geiger initiated an intellectual revolt by the colonized against the colonizer, an attempt not to assimilate into Christianity by adopting Jesus as a Jew, but to overthrow Christian intellectual hegemony by claiming that Christianity—and all of Western civilization—was the product of Judaism.

Heschel's career as a scholar, author, activist, and theologian spanned nearly 40 years and involved him deeply in crucial world issues from the Holocaust to Vietnam to the Civil Rights Movement. This collection of 40 of his essays, edited by his daughter Susannah Heschel, touch on the necessity of bridging duty to God with duty to one's fellow humans. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays

Religion & Spirituality

Heschel, Abraham Joshua

Judaism

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

Twelve distinguished historians, political theorists, and literary critics present new perspectives on multiculturalism in this important collection. Central to the essays (all but one is appearing in print for the first time) is the question of how the Jewish experience can challenge the conventional polar opposition between a majority "white monoculture" and a marginalized "minorities of color multiculture." This book takes issue with such a dichotomy by showing how experiences of American Jews can undo conventional categories. Neither a complaint against multiculturalism by Jews who feel excluded from it, nor a celebration of multiculturalism as the solution to contemporary Jewish problems, Insider/Outsider explores how the Jews' anomalous status opens up multicultural history in different and interesting directions. The goal of the editors has been to transcend the notion of "comparative victimology" and to show the value of a narrative that does not rely on competing histories of persecution. Readers can discover in these essays arguments that will broaden their understanding of Jewish identity and multicultural theory and will enliven the contemporary debate about American culture generally.

Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism

Politics & Social Sciences

BIALE, David

Galchinsky, Michael

Social Sciences

University of California Press

There are writing marks in the book, mostly in pencil.

On Being a Jewish Feminist

Schocken

Author says of her books, "In gathering the essays that eventually became On Being a Jewish Feminist, I sought self-consciously feminist interpretations that would address topics only rarely, if ever, discussed in print in those days - such as wife abuse in the Jewish community, Jewish lesbian identities, the gendered language for God in our liturgies, and theologies."

Sociology

What if Martin Luther King Jr., this name-branded, oft-sanitized preacher from Atlanta, is a prophet whose message America has yet to fully reckon with?Ten days before Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “Where in America today do we hear a voice like the voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us.” What if Heschel’s words about King are true? What if this name-branded, oft-sanitized, Super-Bowl-ad-commercialized, National-Mall-memorialized preacher from Atlanta . . . is a prophet whose message America has yet to fully reckon with? This issue of Plough Quarterly looks at King’s unfinished struggle against the three evils of racism, materialism, and militarism. Perspectives from Edwidge Danticat, Gary Dorrien, Brandon M. Terry, D. L. Mayfield, Eugene Rivers, and Susannah Heschel explore the ways King’s message of nonviolence, justice, and love of neighbor still matters today: to refugees and immigrants, soldiers and veterans, preachers and prisoners, black lives matter activists and the white working class.Also in this issue: original poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye; reviews of new books by James Forman Jr., Steve Krivák, Jim Forest, and Christopher de Hamel; and art by Yvan Lamothe, Roberson Joseph, Barry Moser, Benny Andrews, Zoe Cromwell, Julian Peters, Asuka Hishiki, Mark Smith, Mary Kang, Marc Chagall,John Partipilo, Yuri Kozyrev, Vinicius Barajas, Iain Stewart, Giovanni Bellini.Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Plough Quarterly No. 16 - America’s Prophet

History

Dorrien, Gary

Danticat, Edwidge

Gibson, Chris

Peters, Nathaniel

Britts, Philip

Terry, Brandon M.

Romero, Óscar

Mayfield, D.L.

Rivers III, Eugene F.

Gumaer, Oddny

Americas

Plough Publishing House

Abraham Heschel (1907-1972) was one of the great religious teachers and moral prophets of our time. Born in Warsaw to a long line of Hasidic rabbis, he chose instead to study philosophy in Germany. Expelled back to Warsaw, he escaped just weeks before the Nazi invasion and settled in the United States. Through a series of books he contributed greatly to the spiritual renewal of Judaism. But he exerted an equal influence on Christians, so much that he was called another apostle to the gentiles. A passionate champion of interfaith dialogue, he served as an official observer at Vatican II and was influential in challenging the Catholic church to overcome the legacy of anti-Semitism. He raised a prophetic challenge to the social issues of his day, marching with Martin Luther King and protesting the Vietnam war. His writings here on prayer, God, prophecy, the human condition, and the spiritual life vividly communicate his instinct for the holy dimension of all existence.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters)

Orbis Books

Jüdischer Islam: Islam und jüdisch-deutsche Selbstbestimmung

Matthes & Seitz Verlag

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