lthough it was published almost a decade ago and is no longer in
print, this volume was new to me. I recently purchased my copy from a
store that sells used books on the Internet. Because it assesses the
relationships between Jews and Christians in disturbingly helpful ways, I
recommend that others do the same.
Jacob Neusner, the author of this sobering and stimulating volume, is
one of our era’s most prolific specialists in religious studies. It is
difficult to imagine anyone else now working in this field whose list of
publications is more impressive in quantity and quality.
Neusner writes with the objectivity of the scholar and the commitment
of the Rabbi he truly is. He also writes as one who can listen as well as
speak, feel as well as think. I am thankful that he graciously brought
this volume to my attention. For more information about his life and work,
please visit his Web site at www.neusner.com.
This book is one in a cluster of four by Neusner that examines Jewish
and Christian relations. Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common
Tradition (New York and London: Trinity Press International and SCM
Press, 1990) argues that we should speak of Judaism and
Christianity, not Judeo-Christianity, because these movements are so
different. In The Bible and Us: A Priest and a Rabbi Read the
Scriptures Together (New York: Warner Books, 1990), co-authored with
Andrew M. Greeley, a Roman Catholic priest, sociologist and novelist,
Neusner contends that Judaism and Christianity do not share a common canon
because they read their texts so differently. In A Rabbi Talks with
Jesus (New York: Doubleday, 1993), Neusner expounds why he would
not have become a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth if had he lived in the
first century. For a review of the second edition of this book, as well as
a discussion of a chapter by Neusner in a 2002 anthology, please click here.
Telling Tales, the third volume in this series, is disturbing
because it claims that over the centuries Jews and Christians have not
engaged in genuine dialogue. It is helpful because it substantiates this
claim in detail, outlines the basic requirements of true dialogue,
proposes how it might now begin, and offers instructive samples of such
exchanges. The overall impact is like a thorough medical examination and
treatment plan: uncomfortable at points, but beneficial.
Although the writings of a fourth-century Christian bishop in Iran
named Aphrahat were exemplary in tone and substance, Jewish and Christian
leaders generally came closest to engaging in true dialogue around the
time and place Constantine made Rome a Christian empire, Neusner writes.
More often, from the earliest days to the present, Jews and Christians
indulge in monologues that are evasive at best and hypocritical or even
hostile at worst, he contends.
Christianity invents the idea of "Judaism" and then
caricatures it as a legalistic and arrogant religion that
it attacks with violent words and deeds for persevering despite the
emergence of its allegedly superiority alternative. Judaism unofficially
pretends that Christianity does not actually exist, or that its founder
was of doubtful legitimacy and moral character, even though Judaism’s
inevitable interactions with its overgrown and dangerous child shape and
structure its identity and inner life. Christianity and Judaism thus
circle each other warily while feigning peaceful co-existence, Neusner
writes, much like the cobra and the mongoose. Although I wish this figure
of speech were mine, it is his!
Such interactions do not amount to genuine dialogue, Neusner asserts.
Neither do cosmetic courtesies that purchase superficial affability by
avoiding substantive differences. We make little progress, Neusner holds,
when Jews and Christians agree that Jesus of Nazareth was a "good
man" or a "wise teacher" because this side-steps the
decisive question: Was he actually God’s incarnation?
Similarly, we advance hardly at all when Jews and Christians agree that
we have two equally valid covenants, one for Jews and the other for
Christians, because this disingenuously ignores Israel’s claim to be God’s
chosen people. Although such concessions improve upon their more
antagonistic predecessors, they do so only incrementally and by being less
than candid, Neusner holds.
According to Neusner, genuine dialogue takes place only when "(1)
each party proposes to take seriously the position of the other, (2) each
party concedes the integrity of the other, and (3) each party accepts
responsibility for the outcome of the discussion: that is, remains open to
the possibility of conceding the legitimacy of the other’s
viewpoint." In addition, the parties must possess common agendas,
resources, patterns of reasoning and standards for making judgments.
All parties must be able and willing to address each other with respect
and dignity. They must also enjoy roughly equal standing and power;
otherwise, one or the other interacts so defensively that it risks making
no offensive moves, in both of the primary meanings of this expression.
These requirements have rarely been met in the exchanges between Jews and
Christians, Neusner holds, so infrequently that we might as well say
"never."
Neusner writes that dialogue between religious movements should begin
not by examining ideas or comparing practices but by cultivating the
ability to express in one’s own terms what the other affirms and through
this process to feel, at least to some extent, what the other feels. This
step is the initial goal of true dialogue: to identify with the feelings
of the other, first in sympathy and then with empathy.
Neusner holds that the best way to experience at least some of the
feelings of the other is to take full advantage of the stories in one’s
own religious community that enable one to understand what the other
believes and practices. By "telling tales" Jews and Christians
can make sense of what otherwise remains inexplicable.
These tales are not merely interesting anecdotes from one’s own life,
though Neusner probably has no objection to sharing these as well. They
are narratives that have been shaped over the centuries by a religious
heritage, like stones that have been ground smooth and shiny by a long and
powerful river. True dialogue begins when we tell such tales,
Neusner holds.
Neusner provides two major clusters of stories as samples of resources
for fruitful dialogue plus several minor ones. One major cluster makes it
easier for Jewish people to understand in their own terms what Christians
mean when they say that Jesus is the incarnation of God and to feel what
Christians feel because of this conviction. The other major cluster makes
it more possible for Christians to understand in their own ways what Jews
have in mind when they say that Israel is God’s chosen people and to
feel what Jews feel because of this belief.
In neither case does Neusner’s telling of these tales aim at changing
beliefs and practices; that can come later, if at all. His goal at this
early juncture is to enable Jews and Christians to understand each other
in their own terms, and by doing so to feel what the other feels. These
tales as he tells them, both Jewish and Christian, are indeed
illuminating!
As he does in other publications, Neusner concedes that "the
fusion of the ethnic, the religious, the cultural and the political
presents woeful confusion to Christians" (140). Without yielding the
point that "for nearly all Jews, there is no sorting out the
religious, ethnic and cultural categories—not to mention, after all, the
genealogical as well" (140), he offers at least two clarifications.
One of these is that "if you covert to Judaism, you automatically
become a Jew, a member of the ethnic group," so much so that
"children of converts to Judaism are fully ‘Israel’" (151).
Neusner’s other clarification is that "I make no claim that for
the sake of dialogue, the Christian partner must then approve every
decision of the most current Israeli government" (158). He insists,
however, that "Christians who hold Israel, the state, to that higher,
and unattainable standard or condemn the state of Israel in vile and
hateful language—looking for every chance to compare Israeli policy to
German Nationalist Socialist policy or to invoke ‘the Holocaust’ in
criticizing Israeli actions—have no place in dialogue with
self-respecting Jews. These people are little more than anti-Semites"
(158).
Although I find Neusner’s approach exceedingly helpful, I am also
reminded of the psychiatric adage that "nothing changes when nothing
changes." As John B. Cobb, Jr. contends regarding Buddhism and
Christianity, our ultimate goal must be more than dialogue; it must be
mutual transformation. Things are not likely to improve until, in the best
senses of the relevant terms, and without erasing the distinctive
identity, life and value of each, Christianity as we now know it becomes
more Jewish and Judaism as we now know it becomes more Christian.
Until we change so as truly to act differently, unless our
transformations are ethical as well as intellectual and emotional, we can
continue to expect the horrible harvest we have been reaping for the last
two thousand years. To use Neusner’s figure of speech, if we Jews and
Christians continue circling and striking at each other like the mongoose and the cobra,
things are not likely to improve, even if we understand each other more
fully and feel what the other feels more intensely. As Neusner writes,
this is a vital first step. It is up to us to take it and to make sure
that it is not the last.
It is my view as a Gentile Christian that those of us who are Jews and
Christians may need to change, where appropriate, some of our thoughts,
feelings and actions as they pertain to how God interacts with all the
people of the world, not merely our own communities of faith. One way
to get at this issue is to ponder two passages in Amos. At one
point, this portion of Scripture pictures God saying to the people of
Israel: