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Judeo-Christian

April 14, 2024

For other uses, see Judeo-Christian (disambiguation).

The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, or values supposed to be shared by the two religions. The term Judæo Christian first appeared in the 19th century as a word for Jewish converts to Christianity. The term has received much criticism, largely from Jewish thinkers, as relying on and perpetuating inherently antisemitic notions of supersessionism, as well as glossing over fundamental differences between Jewish and Christian thought, theology, culture and practice.

In the United States, the term was widely used during the Cold War in an attempt to suggest that the U.S. had a unified American identity which was opposed to communism.

The use of the term "Abrahamic religions" to refer to the common grouping of faiths which are attributed to Abraham (Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, Samaritanism, Druzism, and other faiths in addition to Judaism and Christianity) is also sometimes seen as problematic.[1]

History edit

The term "Judæo Christian" first appears in a letter by Alexander McCaul which is dated October 17, 1821.[a] The term in this case referred to Jewish converts to Christianity.[3] The term was similarly used by Joseph Wolff in 1829, in reference to a type of church that would observe some Jewish traditions in order to convert Jews.[4] Mark Silk states in the early 19th century the term was "most widely used (in French as well as English) to refer to the early followers of Jesus who opposed" the wishes of Paul the Apostle and wanted "to restrict the message of Jesus to Jews and who insisted on maintaining Jewish law and ritual".[5]

Friedrich Nietzsche used the German term "Judenchristlich" ("Jewish-Christian") to describe and emphasize what he believed were neglected aspects of the continuity which exists between the Jewish and Christian worldviews. The expression appears in The Antichrist, published in 1895 but written several years earlier; a fuller development of Nietzsche's argument can be found in the prior work, On the Genealogy of Morality.

The concept of Judeo-Christian ethics or Judeo-Christian values in an ethical (rather than a theological or liturgical) sense was used by George Orwell in 1939, along with the phrase "the Judaeo-Christian scheme of morals".[6] According to theologian Richard L. Rubenstein, the "normative Judaeo-Christian interpretation of history" is to treat human suffering, such as a plague, as punishment for human guilt.[7]

According to historian K. Healan Gaston, the term became a descriptor of the U.S. in the 1930s, when the country sought to forge a unified cultural identity in an attempt to distinguish itself from fascism and communism in Europe. Becoming part of the American civil religion by the 1940s, the term rose to greater prominence during the Cold War, especially when it was used to express opposition to communist atheism. In the 1970s, the term became particularly associated with the American Christian right, and it is often employed in political attempts to restrict immigration and LGBT rights.[8]

Inter-group relations edit

Further information: Covenant (biblical) § Abrahamic covenant, and Jerusalem in Christianity

In the United States edit

The rise of antisemitism in the 1930s led concerned Protestants, Catholics, and Jews to take steps to increase mutual understanding and lessen the level of antisemitism in the United States.[9] In this effort, precursors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews created teams consisting of a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, to run programs across the country, and fashion a more pluralistic America, no longer defined as a Christian land, but "one nurtured by three ennobling traditions: Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism....The phrase 'Judeo-Christian' entered the contemporary lexicon as the standard liberal term for the idea that Western values rest on a religious consensus that included Jews."[10]

In the aftermath of World War 2 and the Holocaust, "there was a revolution in Christian theology in America. […] The greatest shift in Christian attitudes towards the Jewish people since Constantine converted the Roman Empire."[11] The rise of Christian Zionism, religiously motivated Christian interest, and support for the state of Israel increased interest in Judaism among American evangelicals. This interest is especially focused on areas of commonality between the teachings of Judaism and their own beliefs.

During the late 1940s, evangelical proponents of the new Judeo-Christian approach lobbied Washington for diplomatic support of the new state of Israel. From the 1990s, continuing through the first two decades of the 21st century, interest in and a positive attitude towards America's Judeo-Christian tradition has become mainstream among evangelicals and (to some extent) the political conservative movement in the United States.[12]

In contrast, by the 1970s, mainline Protestant denominations and the National Council of Churches were more supportive of Palestinians than Israel.[13] Natan Sharansky observed in 2019, that for the first time, he was encountering the situation of nations with ample governmental support for Israel but disinterest and even overt hostility by the Jewish populace.

The scriptural basis for this new positive attitude towards Jews among evangelicals is found in Genesis 12:3, in which God promises that he will bless those who bless Abraham, and curse those who curse them. In the evangelical interpretation this promise includes the descendants of Abraham. Other factors in the new philo-Semitism include gratitude to the Jews for contributing to the theological foundations of Christianity and being the source of the prophets and Jesus; remorse for the Church's history of antisemitism; and fear that God will judge the nations at the end of time based on how they treated the Jewish people.[citation needed] Moreover, for many evangelicals Israel is seen as the instrument through which prophecies of the end times are fulfilled.[14]

The use of the term "Judeo-Christian" in 21st century discourse has been criticized for equating two different faiths and being a vector for Islamophobia by exclusion.[15][16][17]

In Europe edit

Main article: philosemitism

Jewish responses edit

The Jewish community's attitude towards the concept has been mixed. In the 1930s, "In the face of worldwide anti-semitic efforts to stigmatize and destroy Judaism, influential Christians and Jews in America labored to uphold it, pushing Judaism from the margins of American religious life towards its very center."[10] During World War II, Jewish chaplains worked with Catholic priests and Protestant ministers in order to promote goodwill, addressing servicemen who, "in many cases had never seen, much less heard a Rabbi speak before."[citation needed] At funerals for the unknown soldier, rabbis stood alongside the other chaplains and recited prayers in Hebrew. In a much-publicized wartime tragedy, the sinking of the Dorchester, the ship's multi-faith chaplains gave up their lifebelts to evacuate seamen and stood together "arm in arm in prayer" as the ship sank. A 1948 postage stamp commemorated their heroism with the words: "interfaith in action."[10]

In the 1950s, "a spiritual and cultural revival washed over American Jewry" in response to the trauma of the Holocaust.[10] American Jews became more confident in their desire to be identified as different.

Two notable books addressed the relationship between contemporary Judaism and Christianity, Abba Hillel Silver's Where Judaism Differs and Leo Baeck's Judaism and Christianity, both motivated by an impulse to clarify Judaism's distinctiveness "in a world where the term Judeo-Christian had obscured critical differences between the two faiths."[18] Reacting against the blurring of theological distinctions, Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits wrote that "Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism."[19] Theologian and author Arthur A. Cohen, in The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition, questioned the theological validity of the Judeo-Christian concept and suggested that it was essentially an invention of American politics, while Jacob Neusner, in Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition, writes, "The two faiths stand for different people talking about different things to different people."[20]

Law professor Stephen M. Feldman looking at the period before 1950, chiefly in Europe, sees invocation of a "Judeo-Christian tradition" as supersessionism:

Once one recognizes that Christianity has historically engendered antisemitism, then this so-called tradition appears as dangerous Christian dogma (at least from a Jewish perspective). For Christians, the concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition comfortably suggests that Judaism progresses into Christianity—that Judaism is somehow completed in Christianity. The concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition flows from the Christian theology of supersession, whereby the Christian covenant (or Testament) with God supersedes the Jewish one. Christianity, according to this belief, reforms and replaces Judaism. The belief, therefore, implies, first, that Judaism needs reformation and replacement, and second, that modern Judaism remains merely as a "relic". Most importantly the belief of the Judeo-Christian tradition insidiously obscures the real and significant differences between Judaism and Christianity.[21]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ "From all I can see there is but one way to bring about the object of the Society, that is by erecting a Judæo Christian community, a city of refuge, where all who wish to be baptized could be supplied with the means of earning their bread."[2]

References edit

  1. ^ Aaron W. Hughes (2012). Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History. Oxford University Press. pp. 71–75. ISBN 9780199934645.
  2. ^ M'Caul, Alexander (1820–1821). "Extract of a Letter From Mr. M'Caul". The Jewish Expositor, and Friend of Israel. V: 478.
  3. ^ Judæo-, Judeo- in the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition. Accessed online 2008-07-21
  4. ^ Wolff, Joseph (1829). Missionary Journal of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, Missionary to the Jews. Vol. III. London: James Duncan. p. 314.
  5. ^ Silk, Mark (15 April 2019). "Mark Silk on the history of the term 'Judeo-Christian'". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  6. ^ Orwell, George (2017-02-04). George Orwell: An age like this, 1920-1940. David R. Godine Publisher. p. 401. ISBN 9781567921335.
  7. ^ Rubenstein, Richard L. (1966). After Auschwitz: Radical Theology and Contemporary Judaism. The Bobbs-Merrill Company. OCLC 2118249.
  8. ^ Loeffler, James (August 1, 2020). "The Problem With the 'Judeo-Christian Tradition'". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  9. ^ Sarna 2004, p. 266.
  10. ^ a b c d Sarna 2004, p. 267.
  11. ^ Brog, David. Standing With Israel. 2006.p.13
  12. ^ Paul Charles Merkley, Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007)
  13. ^ Caitlyn Carenen, The Fervent Embrace: Liberal Protestants, Evangelicals, and Israel (2012)
  14. ^ Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of Christian Zionism by Stephen Spector, 2008
  15. ^ Udi Greenberg (November 14, 2019). "The Right's "Judeo-Christian" Fixation". The New Republic. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
  16. ^ Goldman, Shalom (February 15, 2011). "What Do We Mean by 'Judeo-Christian'?". Religious Dispatches.
  17. ^ Toby Greene (December 24, 2020). "The term 'Judeo-Christian' has been misused for political ends – a new 'Abrahamic' identity offers an alternative". The Conversation.
  18. ^ Sarna 2004, p. 281.
  19. ^ Disputation and Dialogue: Readings in the Jewish Christian Encounter, Ed. F. E. Talmage, Ktav, 1975, p. 291.
  20. ^ Jacob Neusner (1990), Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition. New York and London: Trinity Press International and SCM Press. p. 28
  21. ^ Stephen M. Feldman (1998), Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State

Further reading edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Judeo-Christian.
 
Look up Judeo-Christian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

April 14, 2024
judeo, christian, other, uses, disambiguation, term, used, group, christianity, judaism, together, either, reference, christianity, derivation, from, judaism, christianity, recognition, jewish, scripture, constitute, testament, christian, bible, values, suppos. For other uses see Judeo Christian disambiguation The term Judeo Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together either in reference to Christianity s derivation from Judaism Christianity s recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or values supposed to be shared by the two religions The term Judaeo Christian first appeared in the 19th century as a word for Jewish converts to Christianity The term has received much criticism largely from Jewish thinkers as relying on and perpetuating inherently antisemitic notions of supersessionism as well as glossing over fundamental differences between Jewish and Christian thought theology culture and practice In the United States the term was widely used during the Cold War in an attempt to suggest that the U S had a unified American identity which was opposed to communism The use of the term Abrahamic religions to refer to the common grouping of faiths which are attributed to Abraham Islam the Bahaʼi Faith Samaritanism Druzism and other faiths in addition to Judaism and Christianity is also sometimes seen as problematic 1 Contents 1 History 2 Inter group relations 2 1 In the United States 2 2 In Europe 3 Jewish responses 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further readingHistory editThe term Judaeo Christian first appears in a letter by Alexander McCaul which is dated October 17 1821 a The term in this case referred to Jewish converts to Christianity 3 The term was similarly used by Joseph Wolff in 1829 in reference to a type of church that would observe some Jewish traditions in order to convert Jews 4 Mark Silk states in the early 19th century the term was most widely used in French as well as English to refer to the early followers of Jesus who opposed the wishes of Paul the Apostle and wanted to restrict the message of Jesus to Jews and who insisted on maintaining Jewish law and ritual 5 Friedrich Nietzsche used the German term Judenchristlich Jewish Christian to describe and emphasize what he believed were neglected aspects of the continuity which exists between the Jewish and Christian worldviews The expression appears in The Antichrist published in 1895 but written several years earlier a fuller development of Nietzsche s argument can be found in the prior work On the Genealogy of Morality The concept of Judeo Christian ethics or Judeo Christian values in an ethical rather than a theological or liturgical sense was used by George Orwell in 1939 along with the phrase the Judaeo Christian scheme of morals 6 According to theologian Richard L Rubenstein the normative Judaeo Christian interpretation of history is to treat human suffering such as a plague as punishment for human guilt 7 According to historian K Healan Gaston the term became a descriptor of the U S in the 1930s when the country sought to forge a unified cultural identity in an attempt to distinguish itself from fascism and communism in Europe Becoming part of the American civil religion by the 1940s the term rose to greater prominence during the Cold War especially when it was used to express opposition to communist atheism In the 1970s the term became particularly associated with the American Christian right and it is often employed in political attempts to restrict immigration and LGBT rights 8 Inter group relations editFurther information Covenant biblical Abrahamic covenant and Jerusalem in Christianity In the United States edit The rise of antisemitism in the 1930s led concerned Protestants Catholics and Jews to take steps to increase mutual understanding and lessen the level of antisemitism in the United States 9 In this effort precursors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews created teams consisting of a priest a rabbi and a minister to run programs across the country and fashion a more pluralistic America no longer defined as a Christian land but one nurtured by three ennobling traditions Protestantism Catholicism and Judaism The phrase Judeo Christian entered the contemporary lexicon as the standard liberal term for the idea that Western values rest on a religious consensus that included Jews 10 In the aftermath of World War 2 and the Holocaust there was a revolution in Christian theology in America The greatest shift in Christian attitudes towards the Jewish people since Constantine converted the Roman Empire 11 The rise of Christian Zionism religiously motivated Christian interest and support for the state of Israel increased interest in Judaism among American evangelicals This interest is especially focused on areas of commonality between the teachings of Judaism and their own beliefs During the late 1940s evangelical proponents of the new Judeo Christian approach lobbied Washington for diplomatic support of the new state of Israel From the 1990s continuing through the first two decades of the 21st century interest in and a positive attitude towards America s Judeo Christian tradition has become mainstream among evangelicals and to some extent the political conservative movement in the United States 12 In contrast by the 1970s mainline Protestant denominations and the National Council of Churches were more supportive of Palestinians than Israel 13 Natan Sharansky observed in 2019 that for the first time he was encountering the situation of nations with ample governmental support for Israel but disinterest and even overt hostility by the Jewish populace The scriptural basis for this new positive attitude towards Jews among evangelicals is found in Genesis 12 3 in which God promises that he will bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse them In the evangelical interpretation this promise includes the descendants of Abraham Other factors in the new philo Semitism include gratitude to the Jews for contributing to the theological foundations of Christianity and being the source of the prophets and Jesus remorse for the Church s history of antisemitism and fear that God will judge the nations at the end of time based on how they treated the Jewish people citation needed Moreover for many evangelicals Israel is seen as the instrument through which prophecies of the end times are fulfilled 14 The use of the term Judeo Christian in 21st century discourse has been criticized for equating two different faiths and being a vector for Islamophobia by exclusion 15 16 17 In Europe edit Main article philosemitismJewish responses editThe Jewish community s attitude towards the concept has been mixed In the 1930s In the face of worldwide anti semitic efforts to stigmatize and destroy Judaism influential Christians and Jews in America labored to uphold it pushing Judaism from the margins of American religious life towards its very center 10 During World War II Jewish chaplains worked with Catholic priests and Protestant ministers in order to promote goodwill addressing servicemen who in many cases had never seen much less heard a Rabbi speak before citation needed At funerals for the unknown soldier rabbis stood alongside the other chaplains and recited prayers in Hebrew In a much publicized wartime tragedy the sinking of the Dorchester the ship s multi faith chaplains gave up their lifebelts to evacuate seamen and stood together arm in arm in prayer as the ship sank A 1948 postage stamp commemorated their heroism with the words interfaith in action 10 In the 1950s a spiritual and cultural revival washed over American Jewry in response to the trauma of the Holocaust 10 American Jews became more confident in their desire to be identified as different Two notable books addressed the relationship between contemporary Judaism and Christianity Abba Hillel Silver s Where Judaism Differs and Leo Baeck s Judaism and Christianity both motivated by an impulse to clarify Judaism s distinctiveness in a world where the term Judeo Christian had obscured critical differences between the two faiths 18 Reacting against the blurring of theological distinctions Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits wrote that Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism 19 Theologian and author Arthur A Cohen in The Myth of the Judeo Christian Tradition questioned the theological validity of the Judeo Christian concept and suggested that it was essentially an invention of American politics while Jacob Neusner in Jews and Christians The Myth of a Common Tradition writes The two faiths stand for different people talking about different things to different people 20 Law professor Stephen M Feldman looking at the period before 1950 chiefly in Europe sees invocation of a Judeo Christian tradition as supersessionism Once one recognizes that Christianity has historically engendered antisemitism then this so called tradition appears as dangerous Christian dogma at least from a Jewish perspective For Christians the concept of a Judeo Christian tradition comfortably suggests that Judaism progresses into Christianity that Judaism is somehow completed in Christianity The concept of a Judeo Christian tradition flows from the Christian theology of supersession whereby the Christian covenant or Testament with God supersedes the Jewish one Christianity according to this belief reforms and replaces Judaism The belief therefore implies first that Judaism needs reformation and replacement and second that modern Judaism remains merely as a relic Most importantly the belief of the Judeo Christian tradition insidiously obscures the real and significant differences between Judaism and Christianity 21 See also editMandaeans Messianic JudaismNotes edit From all I can see there is but one way to bring about the object of the Society that is by erecting a Judaeo Christian community a city of refuge where all who wish to be baptized could be supplied with the means of earning their bread 2 References edit Aaron W Hughes 2012 Abrahamic Religions On the Uses and Abuses of History Oxford University Press pp 71 75 ISBN 9780199934645 M Caul Alexander 1820 1821 Extract of a Letter From Mr M Caul The Jewish Expositor and Friend of Israel V 478 Judaeo Judeo in the Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition Accessed online 2008 07 21 Wolff Joseph 1829 Missionary Journal of the Rev Joseph Wolff Missionary to the Jews Vol III London James Duncan p 314 Silk Mark 15 April 2019 Mark Silk on the history of the term Judeo Christian National Catholic Reporter Retrieved 18 March 2020 Orwell George 2017 02 04 George Orwell An age like this 1920 1940 David R Godine Publisher p 401 ISBN 9781567921335 Rubenstein Richard L 1966 After Auschwitz Radical Theology and Contemporary Judaism The Bobbs Merrill Company OCLC 2118249 Loeffler James August 1 2020 The Problem With the Judeo Christian Tradition The Atlantic Retrieved August 5 2020 Sarna 2004 p 266 a b c d Sarna 2004 p 267 Brog David Standing With Israel 2006 p 13 Paul Charles Merkley Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel McGill Queen s University Press 2007 Caitlyn Carenen The Fervent Embrace Liberal Protestants Evangelicals and Israel 2012 Evangelicals and Israel The Story of Christian Zionism by Stephen Spector 2008 Udi Greenberg November 14 2019 The Right s Judeo Christian Fixation The New Republic Retrieved July 10 2023 Goldman Shalom February 15 2011 What Do We Mean by Judeo Christian Religious Dispatches Toby Greene December 24 2020 The term Judeo Christian has been misused for political ends a new Abrahamic identity offers an alternative The Conversation Sarna 2004 p 281 Disputation and Dialogue Readings in the Jewish Christian Encounter Ed F E Talmage Ktav 1975 p 291 Jacob Neusner 1990 Jews and Christians The Myth of a Common Tradition New York and London Trinity Press International and SCM Press p 28 Stephen M Feldman 1998 Please Don t Wish Me a Merry Christmas A Critical History of the Separation of Church and StateFurther reading editBobrick Benson Wide as the Waters The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired Simon amp Schuster 2001 ISBN 0684847477 Paula Fredriksen From Jesus to Christ The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ Yale University Press ISBN 978 0300084573 Hexter J H The Judaeo Christian Tradition Second Edition Yale University Press 1995 ISBN 978 0300045727 McGrath Alister In the Beginning The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation a Language and a Culture Anchor Books 2002 ISBN 0385722168 Sarna Jonathan 2004 American Judaism A History Yale University Press nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Judeo Christian nbsp Look up Judeo Christian in Wiktionary the free dictionary Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Judeo Christian amp oldid 1214588527, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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