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book: Jacob’s Younger Brother
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Jacob’s Younger Brother

Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2022

About this book

At Vatican II, the Catholic Church renounced the teaching that Jews had killed Christ and pivoted toward reconciliation. Jewish leaders responded in kind. Karma Ben-Johanan pierces the veil of interfaith dialogue, emphasizing rabbinical literature suspicious of the sudden Catholic turn and Catholic theologians struggling to maintain tradition.

Reviews

An extraordinarily sophisticated, insightful and provocative examination of how Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews addressed the prospect of reconciliation in the second half of the twentieth century.
-- Glenn C. Altschuler Jerusalem Post

A volume from which both Jewish and Catholic scholars may learn…This is an excellent book.
-- Eugene J. Fisher Catholic News Service

A sobering book…Ben-Johanan tells a full story of the evolution of an uneasy relationship between these siblings, Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism…The message of this book is important to everyone involved in interfaith work, because the language of interfaith work is too often a gesture without teeth.
-- Jon M. Sweeney Christian Century

An illuminating and important new book…An intellectual, cultural, and political challenge…[F]or anyone for whom the Jewish-Christian story is an important element in defining his or her identity.
-- Israel Jacob Yuval Haaretz

A remarkably bold and ambitious book…admirably lucid, often eloquent, and unusually engaging to read…This is a book that few scholars would have ventured to write.
-- Bruce D. Marshall Antisemitism Studies

Ben-Johanan’s remarkable new book…explores the story of Nostra Aetate and its influence on Jewish-Christian relations.
-- Malka Z. Simkovich Jewish Review of Books

An astute and evenhanded study of how both faiths view themselves and each other.
-- Publishers Weekly

Karma Ben-Johanan is the first scholar to ask how Catholics and Jews found a language to speak to each other after the Holocaust. As a theologian and a historian, she knows well the difficulty they faced: building bridges to one another while carefully guarding the boundaries of their own traditions. In this fascinating and sobering book, she uncovers why—despite the best of intentions—church and synagogue continue to perplex one another.
-- John Connelly, author of From Enemy to Brother

Hard-hitting and groundbreaking, Jacob’s Younger Brother will have a long‐lasting impact on Jewish-Catholic relations.
-- Gavin D’Costa, author of Catholic Doctrines on Jews after the Second Vatican Council

A new and bold contribution to an often stereotyped and petrified discourse. Indispensable for anybody engaged in the Jewish-Christian dialogue.
-- Peter Schäfer, author of Two Gods in Heaven

A refreshingly honest and deeply thought-provoking book on the mutual perception of Jews and Christians in the late twentieth century. Ben-Johanan provides new interpretations of John Paul II and Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s writings. She also guides her readers through the ongoing heated debates among Orthodox Jewish thinkers confronted with a newly friendly Christian community. Jacob’s Younger Brother is required reading for anyone interested in Jewish-Christian relations today.
-- Etienne Vetö, Director of the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies, Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome)

This is a groundbreaking book and a must-read for all interested in contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. The Jewish Orthodox perspective is thoughtfully explained and brilliantly integrated, for the first time, alongside its Catholic counterpart.
-- Christoph Markschies, author of God’s Body

An excellent book.
-- Eugene J. Fisher Detroit Catholic

A unique and valuable addition to the literature of Jewish-Christian relations.
-- Cecil R. White Catholic Library World

This incisive book is a critical overview of modern developments in Christian–Jewish relations…Provides an intellectually stimulating and sometimes disturbing read.
-- David Maayan Current Dialogue

For anyone interested in studying Christian-Jewish relations, from beginner to advanced student, this volume is a must-read.
-- Mindy C. Reiser Association of Jewish Libraries

Thoughtful…Ben-Johanan offers a concise overview of the evolution of Catholic teachings on Jews over the centuries.
-- Times of Israel

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    vii
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    Note on Translation and Transliteration

    ix
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    Introduction

    1
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  • Part I Judaism in Catholic Theology
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    1 Historical and Theological Transitions

    11
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    2 After Vatican II

    38
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    3 John Paul II and Christian-Jewish Reconciliation

    82
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    4 Joseph Ratzinger and the Jews

    108
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  • Part II Christianity in Orthodox Jewish Thought
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    5 Christianity in the Jewish Tradition

    145
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    6 Christianity in Contemporary Halakhic Literature

    162
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    7 Christianity in Religious Zionist Thought

    194
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    8 The Orthodox World and Christian-Jewish Dialogue

    229
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    Epilogue

    273
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    Notes

    291
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    Acknowledgments

    347
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    Index

    349
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 17, 2022
eBook ISBN:
9780674276352
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
352
View content
https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674276352
eBook ISBN: 9780674276352
Keywords for this book
Orthodox Judaism; Nostra Aetate; Anti-Judaism; Mission; Catholic theology; Supersessionism; Replacement theology; John Paul II; Benedict XVI; Rabbi Kook; Soloveitchick; Anti-Christian; Inter-religious; Six Day War; Zionism; Political theology; Religious tolerance
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