Has God Only One Blessing?: Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding

By Mary C. Boys

Book Overview

Are we rivals for God's love? The Church has changed its thinking about Judaism, yet these changes are not yet known by most Christians. This compelling book, by respected religious-education theorist Mary Boys, makes the academic scholarship highly accessible. Her foremost challenge is for Christians to reexamine their two-fold tradition that Christianity has fulfilled the covenant and therefore replaced Judaism, and that the Jews, in rejecting Jesus, are now rejected by God. The book summarizes the Church's shared history with Judaism ... details the anti-Jewish bias in history, literature, and liturgy and how this bias exists today ... and examines how Church treatment of Jews played a role in the Shoah. The issues are presented without being reduced to simplistic hate. The author also includes practical pastoral points, not only suggesting sensitive ways for Christians to relate to Jews, but also revealing how encounters with Judaism affect the way Christians think, teach, and preach about life. This book is important for pastors, preachers, faith formation directors, religious educators, and members of liturgy and evangelization teams. It's also absorbing reading for adult classes, anyone interested in church history, all serious Christians, and Jews who want to situate the legacy of anti-Judaism while seeing substantial changes in thought. +

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809139316
• ISBN13: 9780809139316
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Thinking Christians Will Change When They Read This

Mary C. Boys' book is desperately needed, especially in a culture where Mel Gibson's movie about the Passion is the only source many people will go to for their history (or lack of). After reading this book, if you are a thinking person, your spiritual foundations will grow and your previously mistaken understandings about Jews and Judaism (not to mention God's "irrevocable" gifts and call to Israel - Rom 11:25-36) will change for the better. It is time to let theologians like Mary C. Boys pave a new path for the ongoing Christian culture and its relation to "the root that supports" it. Buy this book for your Pastor!

Christianity--Better Understood in the Light of Judaism

In our contemporary era, it is not usually considered acceptable to explicitly embrace bigotry and religious intolerance. Yet, as Christians we often do it in implicit ways which have shaped us since childhood. In this powerful book, Mary Boys offers a review of the history whereby Jews and Christians moved from being siblings, to being rivals and finally, enemies. This is a situation that can be reversed as Christians learn more about Judaism and, in turn, understand their own religion with more depth.Mary does not profess to be an expert of Judaica. But here grasp of catholic theology and history is superb. Carefully and objectively she lays out her case for why Christians should refuse the supersessionism which infects our tradition. As she explains, Christianity should be able to express the power which is inherent in its tradition without denegrating the faith of the Jewish people. It is not necessary to insist that Christians are the new People of God in a way which proposes that the Jews are no longer God's people. As the title suggests, Mary demonstrates that God has blessings enough for both.As a doctoral student in a summer session at Boston College, I have had the privilege of studying with Mary Boys. Hers is a powerful and persuasive argument that seeks to recapture something authentic and true about the foundations of Christianity. It is too easy to misread the gospel accounts as if Jesus and the Jews were arrayed against one another. In reality, Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew himself and this fact is far too often forgotten by Christians. Typical of other Pharisaic rabbis of his day, Jesus had a particular approach to Jewish Law and customs and he had his own group of disciples who referred to themselves as "followers of the Way." In this simple rabbi these disciples encountered the power of God, placing Christians in a position which should be one of gratitude toward the Jews, not condescension and condemnation.As Christians, are we able to develop a new paradigm which is faithful to our tradition without demonization of the Jews? I believe we can. I believe we must, and Mary Boys points a way in which we can better understand ourselves in the process.

"Has God Only One Blessing", An Achievement.

With "Has God Only One Blessing" Mary Boys has made a major contribution to Jewish Christian relations. It is a singular contribution and advances the conversation to what is for Christians the most challenging area, which is the way we worship.Jews and Christians have made enormous progress in mutal respect and understanding over the last forty years. Religious text books have been reviewed for negative stereotypes. We are quick to rally support for victims of discrimination and hate crimes. Our leaderships have made thoughtful policy statements. There are high levels of cooperation in efforts for justice and peace. Scores of colleges and universities have centers for interreligious study and research.How Jews and Judaism are presented in our worship is quite another matter. Our words and our structures are riven with supersessionism, the assumption that Christianity fulfills and replaces Judaism. It is this enormous diffuculty Mary Boys analyses with the a clear vision and practical directives. Her work is most welcome and merits great attention.