Soundings in the Judaism of Jesus: Perspectives and Methods in Christian Scholarship

Jacket Description/Flap: Jesus was a Jew and not a Christian. That affirmation may seem obvious, but here an international cast of Jewish and Christian scholars spell out its weighty and often complex consequences for contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. Soundings in the Religion of Jesus contextualizes Jesus and the writings about him that set the stage for Jewish-Christian relations for the next two thousand years. Of equal importance, this book considers the reception, celebration, and (too often) the neglect of Jesus' Jewishness in modern contexts and the impact such responses have had for Jewish-Christian relations. Topics explored include the ethics of scriptural translation, the ideological motives of Nazi theologians and other "quests" for the Historical Jesus, and the ways in which New Testament portraits of Jesus both help and hurt authentic Jewish-Christian dialogue. Table of Contents: Contributors -- Foreword / Adele Reinhartz -- Introduction: Allowing Historical Study to Serve Interfaith Dialogue / Anthony Le Donne -- Part 1. The New Testament Jesus and Exclusionary Boundaries -- 1. Translating Jesus and the Jews: Can We Eradicate the Anti-Semitism without Also Erasing the Semitism? / Leonard Greenspoon -- 2. A Jewish Teaching: Jesus, Gentiles, and the Sheep and the Goats (MATTHEW 25:31-46) / Joel N. Lohr -- 3. A Dogmatic Jesus / Anne Lapidus Lerner -- Part 2. Early Jewish and Gentile Perspectives on Jesus -- 4. The Distribution of Jewish Leaders in the Synoptic Gospels: Why Wariness is Warranted / Michael J. Cook -- 5. Viewing the Jewish Jesus of History through the Lens of Matthew's Gospel / Donald Senior C. P. -- 6. The Trial of Jesus and the Temple: Sadducean and Roman Perspectives / Eyal Regev -- Part 3. Jesus Research before and after German National Socialism -- 7. Remapping Schweitzer's Quest through Jewish-Christian Polemic, Apology, and Dialogue / Anthony Le Donne -- 8. The Dissimilar Jesus: Anti-Semitism, Protestantism, Hero-Worship, and Dialectical Theology / Dagmar Winter -- 9. Jesus within Judaism: The Political and Moral Context of Jesus Research and Its Methodology / Gerd Theissen -- Part 4. Jesus in Jewish-Christian Dailogue -- 10. The Importance of Jewish-Christian Dialogue on Jesus / James D. G. Dunn -- 11. Jesus in Jewish-Christian Dialogue / Amy-Jill Levine -- 12. Conclusion / Bruce Chilton, Jacob Neusner -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index of Modern Authors -- Index of Ancient Sources.

Contributor Bio:  Chilton, Bruce Bruce D. Chilton is the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion; Chaplain of the College; Executive Director of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Contributor Bio:  Le Donne, Anthony Chris Keith (Ph. D., University of Edinburgh) is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Director of the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St. Mary's University College, Twickenham, UK. He is the author of "The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the Literacy of Jesus", a winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and "Jesus' Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee". He is also the co-editor of "Jesus among Friends and Enemeis: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels", and was recently named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar. Contributor Bio:  Neusner, Jacob Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism; Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.