Jews and Christians Together. A. Christian van Gorder

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СКАЧАТЬ van Gorder is a faculty colleague at Baylor and Gordy Fuller served as my rabbi—and I have heard about their writing project for some time. When I first picked up this book, I expected it to be something of a folksy first-person account of the travails of teaching about Judaism to innocent, young, sheltered Baptists, replete with a litany of semi-foolish quotes that would be lightly cringe-worthy while inducing forgiving chuckles, and that would close with an earnest call for more education, tolerance of diversity, and all manner of positive interfaith goodness. “After all, we all worship the same God, kumbayah, etc., good night and drive safely.” This is what I was expecting.

      What I found when I began reading the manuscript, transfixed almost from the first page, was something entirely different. I am not prone to hyperbole, but here it is: This book is one of the most thought-inducing contemporary works on Jewish-Christian relations that I have read. In places, it is reminiscent of some of the finest works in this genre: Jacob Neusner’s A Rabbi Talks with Jesus, Elliot Abrams’ Fear of Faith, Abba Hillel Silver’s Where Judaism Differs, and Neusner and Andrew Greeley’s A Priest and a Rabbi Read Scripture Together come to mind. But van Gorder’s and Fuller’s book is uniquely poignant. It is loaded with first-person accounts of the authors’ experiences teaching the impressionable—and somewhat rigid—young minds of undergraduate religion students about a faith tradition beyond their familiar Evangelical orbit. The book also is heavy on the very words of these students as they negotiate, in many instances, their very first exposure not just to Judaism or even to a Jewish person (Fuller) but to any religious tradition, belief, or person other than the flavor that they encountered in their home church or community while “growing up.”

      This book is thus much less a book about abstractions, theologically, culturally, or politically. Rather, it underscores the estrangement of young Evangelicals from even the most basic information about normative Jewish identity, belief, or practice. By normative I mean the entirety of rabbinic Judaism, almost the entirety of contemporary North American Jewish religious expression, and anything of substantive significance in Judaism’s post-Temple era of the past 2,000 years. To most of the students described in this book, the Jewish religion is precisely as described in the literal words of their Bible, no more and no less. For such reasons, then, there is no surprise in reading the jarring words of one student, during a class visit to our synagogue, who asked Rabbi Fuller if he would show them the room where we sacrifice sheep. Remarkably, this book functions as an unexpected Evangelical Christian apologia for Judaism. For this, van Gorder is to be praised to the hills (of his native Pittsburgh, at least). It takes considerable courage to stake out the positions that he does, and I suspect that he may receive some pushback from professional colleagues. Likewise, Fuller is to be praised for his sensitive and forgiving, yet quite pointed, reflections on his experiences with college students.

      Gordy had a lengthy career in religious education before entering the rabbinate, and he has witnessed the flip side of this issue: the perceptions and misperceptions expressed by young Jews about the Christian-dominant ethos in which they live. My favorite passage in the book is this one; the words are van Gorder’s:

      Evangelicals who insist that Jews cannot reach heaven apart from becoming Christians should, at the very least, acknowledge that such a view comes from one specific interpretation of the Christian scriptures. It would be hoped that these same advocates would at least accept that those Christians who disagree with their views—and believe that the Almighty promised an eternal blessing for all Jews that cannot be cancelled—are not, in some way, being traitorous to the historic Christian tradition. As a Christian, I take the Bible seriously and literally when it says—in no uncertain terms—that God has made an everlasting covenant with the Jewish people that cannot be—and will never be—revoked. (170)

      The Catholic church has famously acknowledged this same view about the eternal fate of the Jewish people in the Conciliar Document from Vatican II entitled Nostra Aetete and subsequently in follow-ups by popes Paul VI (Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetete) and John Paul II (Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church), as well as in statements by Pope Francis. Mainline Protestant denominations and organizations (e.g., the National Council of Churches) have followed suit, or already had shunned the proselytizing of Jews. Professor van Gorder’s statement is the most blunt, straightforward statement of this type that I have read by an American Evangelical leader, theologian, or religious scholar. If indeed Evangelicals too are taking steps in this direction, then I consider this a very hopeful development—very “good news,” if you will for the Jewish people.

      To be clear, it is not that Jews should really care one way or the other how the theological, soteriological, or eschatological positions staked out by this or that Christian communion sorts them out. We don’t have a horse in the race. If some Christians choose to believe X, Y, or Z about Jews or about anything else, then that is between them and God. But, if it means less persecution for us, more informed and respectful coexistence, and even a step toward what would be the best outcome for committed Jews—both Jews and Christians need to work together with shared purpose in the sacred vocation of tikkun olam [תקון עולם], i.e., repairing the brokenness of the world—then we are all for it. What more beautiful vision could there be for this world than faithful followers of the Mosaic covenant and of the Abrahamic call to “go forth” walking hand in hand with gentile friends who have accepted Christ’s call to take up the cross and likewise “go forth into all the world?” There is a gigantic reclamation project awaiting us, and it requires the labors of committed Jews and Christians working together.

      The authors are telling their story through the words of very young, non-cosmopolitan students in an undergraduate class on world religions at a historically Baptist university located in the Bible Belt of Texas. Presumably, undergraduate religion majors taking a graduate-level seminar on the same topic in the divinity schools of, say, Chicago, Princeton, or Harvard would be a bit more exposed to, fluent in, and accommodated to the specifics of faith traditions other than their own. At the same time, I can attest that these young men and women, as narrowly cast as are their past encounters with the fullness of the American religious experience, are for the most part exceedingly polite and good-natured, and are willing to work hard to learn new things, consider new ideas, and better both themselves and the world in which they live. These are all, ideally at least, Jewish religious values of the highest importance.

      Say “Baylor” to leaders of North American Judaism and the first thing that comes to mind, besides the medical profession, is liable to be a stereotypical image of an old intolerant, Jew-baiting, Southern Baptist preacher—Bailey Smith, ca. 1980, for example, who once proclaimed that “God did not hear the prayers of the Jews.”1 That was then, this is now. An example of changing times is that fact that Rabbi Gordon Fuller has been so warmly welcomed in our classrooms. The Rabbi is a person who refuses to accept the status-quo. In this book, he speaks with a prophetic voice, in the original meaning of the word prophetic: calling people out of their complacency and transgression, pointing out their mistakes, and encouraging penitence, all in service to an idealized and brighter future. That he does so gently and respectfully is even more impressive.

      This book is a wonderful and challenging reading experience—wonderful because the topic is so provocative, the students’ remarks are so fascinating, and van Gorder’s and Fuller’s comments are so unflinchingly honest; challenging for the same reasons: the topic is so provocative, the students’ remarks are so fascinating, and van Gorder’s and Fuller’s comments are so unflinchingly honest. The authors have crafted an accessible piece of work that quickly draws us into the substance and nuances of the serious issues that they raise. It is an unforgettable read and merits a wide audience.

      Jeff Levin

      University Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health

      Director, Program on Religion and Population Health

      Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor СКАЧАТЬ