Judaism and Christianity: New Directions for Dialogue and Understanding »

Alan J. Avery-Peck is Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Judaic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Specializing in Jewish history and religion in the first six centuries C.E., he is a co-editor of The Encyclopaedia of Judaism (second edition in 4 vols., Brill, 2005) and The Mishnah in Contemporary Perspective (in 2 vols., Brill, 2002-2006). He is editor of the journal The Review of Rabbinic Judaism.

Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, Annandale-Upon-Hudson, New York. A member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, and life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, in England, he is the internationally recognized author of hundreds of books on Judaism.

Top scholars in Judaic and Christian studies treat the interrelationship between Judaism and Christianity, reflecting on how the two faiths have related to and been shaped by each other as they evolved in shared historical and cultural contexts, even as each has maintained its own distinctive ideologies and beliefs.

Preface vii

Introduction

Renewing Religious Disputation in Quest of Theological Truth Jacob Neusner 3

The First Centuries

Mosaics as Midrash: The Zodiacs of the Ancient Synagogues and the Conflict between Judaism and Christianity Yaffa Englard 11

Judaic Social Teaching in Christian and Pagan Context Jacob Neusner 29

Planting Christian Trees in Jewish Soil Herbert W. Basser 61

Rabbinic Texts in the Exegesis of the New Testament Miguel Pérez Fernández 83

Christianity, Diaspora Judaism, and Roman Crisis Robert M. Price 109

The Medieval Period

Newton, Maimonidean José Faur 127

Moslem, Christian, and Jewish Cultural Interaction in Sefardic Talmudic Interpretation Daniel Boyarin 163

Don Quixote-Talmudist and Mucho Más José Faur 197

The Modern Period

Torah and Culture: H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture after Fifty Years: A Judaic Response Jacob Nusner 217

Five Types of Judaism? Reflections on the Inner Logic of Judaism as Revealed by Niebuhr's Phenomenological Typology Evan M. Zuesse 243

The Agenda of Dabru Emet Jon D. Levenson 265

Index of Names 293

Index of Ancient Sources 295