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| Category: |
Religion |
Publisher: |
Cowley Publications |
ISBN-10: |
978156101280 |
Type: |
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| Pages: |
248 |
Copyright: |
2006 |
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Non-Fiction |
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When Christians Were Jews (That Is, Now): Recovering the Lost Jewishness of Christianity with the Gospel of Mark encourages Christians to rediscover their Jewish identity. Berard, adopted by Christian parents, discovered as an adult that he is by birth half Jewish. From the vantage point of this personal story he examines the body of scholarship on the “historical Jesus” or the “Jewish Jesus,” but goes further. He strives to apply the life, practice, and religion of the Jewish Jesus to contemporary Christian life. The Gospel of Mark provides the framework as Berard studies the acts and teachings of Jesus in the context of the Roman war against the Jews that was ongoing at the time the gospel was written. Berard also offers practical suggestions as to how Christians might incorporate aspects their Jewish heritage—through the keeping of Shabbat and Torah study, for example—and calls Christians to explore “with open mind and heart . . . the Jewishness not only of Jesus but of themselves.”
Wayne-Daniel Berard is the chaplain at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, where he also teaches in the English department.
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Reader Reviews for "When Christians were Jews (That is, Now)"
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| Reviewed by David Wynne |
5/17/2007 |
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A carefuly, and meticulously, constructed journey through Mark examining the misconceptions that modern Christians have about their Jewish roots. The book is bursting with information and probably lends itself best to an academic environment. However, there is lot to confront any reader. To name a few: Mother Mary may have been a prostitute, Jesus illegitimate, Judas actually acting on Jesus' own suicidal orders, the "my god, my god" plea of Jesus on the cross not related to the Passion but to the fall of the Temple, and finally, among his conclusions; "...Jesus would find a much better match for his own spirituality in most contemporary Jewish congregations than in most Christian churches." (227).
Nevertheless his work is maintsream and very well conceived. Well aware of mainstrean scholarship he also offers alternative approaches related to his title. It's thought provoking stuff but the reader will need to be patient to get all that's there. |
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