Books Explore "New Alliances" in Christian-Jewish Relations

May 22, 2005

Source: The Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid=1116728302808

On May 22, 2005 The Jerusalem Post reported, "Rabbi 'Yitz' Greenberg, consistently on the radical wing of traditional Judaism, has written what may in time be regarded as a truly groundbreaking book on the possibilities of a new Jewish-Christian encounter. Jews and Christians must think 'out of the box' if they wish to move forward in the Jewish-Christian relationship, he says, and their common future can only be realized in previously unimagined common covenantal understanding. Greenberg believes that new experiences in history - the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel - demand new understandings. Both Judaism and Christianity must recognize that they are divinely complementary revelations. Following different paths, both are capable of leading mankind to redemption and perfection. To do this, argues Greenberg, they must jettison the historical baggage that dominates so much of historic Jewish-Christian discourse. Christianity must recognize the continued validity of God's covenant with the Jewish people; Judaism, in a greater leap, must unambivalently recognize the monotheistic validity of Christianity, and recognize and validate a non-divine, non-Messianic Jesus."