Jesus Christ the stumbling block:

...Borowitz concludes that, at least in the case of these eleven authors, the charge is not true...

...At several points, Borowitz notes that Judaism sees no need for a special act of redemption on humanity's behalf...

...Ruether, Soelle, and Schoonenberg are taken as exponents of a renewed effort at a "liberal" position, especially their attempt to interpret the exclusivity of Christian faith claims in social and historical categories...

...Although it would make the agenda somewhat grim, perhaps the nature of evil should be one of the main topics of further exchange between two religious traditions which are both committed to the redeemability of the world but see it happening in radically different ways...

...Some of the most fruitful and extensive dialogue in the book is with the remaining two authors, James Gustafson and H. Richard Niebuhr...

...Hence the book...

...but he is able, and unafraid, to find the areas of radical disagreement...

...Faith and trust in God, the knowledge of God, the love and fear of God and other such subjective aspects of religion are valued and commended...

...A final chapter tests out whether, as in Rosemary Ruether's notorious dictum, christology is the "left hand of anti-Semitism...

...But they are not spared his critique...

...His highest accolades are reserved for Niebuhr and his treatment of christology and culture...

...Borowitz finds little common ground with the exclusive faith claims of Berkouwer and Barth...

...This, Borowitz claims, is one area where Jewish thought may have the most to learn from Christianity...

...Even though he explicitly decries anti-Semitism, Barth's christology makes him "prejudiced" against Jews because he can find no positive religious value in the synagogue...

...Borowitz admits that this optimism has sagged under the horror of the Holocaust and the troubled state of the' modern world, but an ultimately optimistic assessment of the human capacity for good, without the need for redemption, remains at the heart of the liberal Jewish perspective...

...If Christ is the stumbling block, then so is the question of universalism which from the Christian perspective is at the heart of the Gospel...

...A book like this creates an avalanche of reflections for the reader-a sure sign it is doing its job...

...First of all, I hope the pattern that Borowitz sets for interreligious exchange won't be overlooked, in contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue as in other bilateral discussions...

...If I may add to the list of regrets, I wish he had tackled a liberation theologian and a non-Western christology, too...

...The heart of authentic Judaism sees no need for any kind of mediating figure between God and humanity...

...Pannenberg's first edition Jesus-God and Man (1968) also concluded that Judaism as a religion is "done away with" by the Christ event, a position he later explicitly retracted (see the foreword to The Apostles Creed in the Light of Today's Questions, 1972...

...One can only hope that the Jewish-Christian dialogue would continue in the same spirit...

...It is an act of courage and graciousness typical of the author and his book...

...The stumbling block is the figure of Jesus Christ...

...The heart of the issue between Jews and Christians, as Borowitz flatly states in his opening sentence, is "the Christian doctrine of Christ...

...The choices are all good...

...John Knox is presented as a classic exponent of liberal Protestantism and Borowitz uses this chapter to neatly skewer the false optimism and limited depth of the phenomenological approach used by Knox...

...Borowitz openly admires the ethical breadth of Gustafson's work and uses the occasion to give a detailed review of Jewish ethical thinking in the post-Kantian era...

...Although his statements of these christ-ologies are necessarily brief, I doubt if the authors themselves would feel that their basic ideas have been slighted...

...With all the careful nuance and honest exchange this study provides, the gulf between Judaism and Christianity remains vast, perhaps its dimensions even more firmly set...

...is just what its title claims: a thoughtful, spirited Jewish response to selected christologies...

...Borowitz suggests, therefore, that the most productive dialogue will happen when liberals of one tradition engage liberals of another- or conservatives of one engage conservatives of another-over the issues that radically separate the two traditions...

...On more than one occasion, Borowitz mentions that he finds Christian theologians speak of Jesus in too idealized or sentimental a fashion...

...Eugene B. Borowitz, its author, is a Professor of Education and Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, and a well respected theological author who describes himself as a "Reform Jew of religiously traditional bent," a member of the "right wing of liberal Judaism...

...While his references to Christ are consistently respectful, he is not in awe of him as a compelling moral paradigm or religious innovator...

...There is a remarkable optimism about the ability of humankind to "turn" and to perform the commands God expects of us...

...Pannenberg's appeal to history provides a more positive opening but Borowitz considers his arguments for the historical cogency of the resurrection to be pallid...

...Traditional Jewish thought did not give much attention to the fate of the non-Jewish religions and their adherents, as Borowitz notes, and one might add, neither did classical christology...

...Borowitz concludes his book with a blessing invoked on behalf of the Gentile theologians he has studied, a break with strict Jewish tradition which allowed blessings only on the secular wisdom of Gentiles...

...Other than these troubling lapses, Borowitz concludes, while "classic christology was closely associated with anti-Semitism, and while some remnants of it are to be found among traditionalist theologians, other traditionalists as well as liberals and post-liberals have found anti-Semitism antithetical to their understanding of the Christ...

...This is an admirable stance but open to charges of naivete, or at least of being too Western and too technologically inspired...

...This topic makes the chapter on Gustafson's theology one of the most informative because Borowitz's review of Jewish ethical thought illustrates the differing tones of Judaism and Christianity...

...I think that for almost any Christian theologian, reading the Scriptures from the perspective of the New Testament would instinctively reverse the priority which Borowitz, speaking from his Jewish suggests...

...None is as frequently mentioned when God speaks to the children of Israel as to the details of what God wants them to do...

...Secondly, as a Christian reader I came away from this book sobered...

...A succinct treatment of each christology is offered, and then Borowitz selects one or other issue to converse with from a Jewish perspective...

...As he states: For the Jew, "commandment is the single most significant link between God and humankind in the Bible...

...Openly confronting such a radical source of disagreement is, in the author's view, a basic ground rule for any religious dialogue that hopes to move beyond merely pragmatic considerations...

...Jesus holds little fascination for Borowitz...

...Borowitz dialogues with these authors about the function of religious symbols and about the problems liberals (Christian and Jewish) have maintaining the authority of their traditions...

...Moltmann's use of Jewish sources is found appealing, but Borowitz underlines the limits of his dialectical method...

...Here, as he states, is where the most fruitful interreligious dialogue will take place...

...Borowitz's respect for these two theologians is evident, due in part, no doubt, to the fact that their style of theology is analogous to his own-vigorously modern yet respectful of tradition...

...Rahner's metaphysical acumen is praised, but Borowitz notes the ambiguity of his mix of faith and reason...

...Looking back, Borowitz regrets not choosing a "right wing Catholic" and an Orthodox theologian as well...

...Because they are less insistent on the exclusive claims of Christianity and more aware of historical categories, liberals tend to be more positive in their regard for Judaism...

...Berkouwer, Barth, and Pannen-berg are selected as a modern version of "traditional" christologies...

...Their appeal to faith exceeds that of the liberals and their use of reason and their sense of universalism go beyond that of traditional christologies...

...Another classical issue separates Judaism and Christianity and this book reaffirms it in unhesitating tones: the role of law...

...Another area for continuing discussion is the relationship of Judaism to "the nations...

...The eleven christologies provide a wide spectrum of viewpoints and issues for substantial dialogue...

...But what he does, he does well...

...Rahner and Moltmann are selected as representatives of "post-liberal" christologies...

...He is frank, listens well, speaks clearly, and above all goes immediately to the heart of the issue...

...The ultimate stumbling block, as Borowitz's precise logic again and again reveals, is not our tortured historical relationships, not our lack of mutual understanding, or our different styles of religious life...

...Contemporary christology has had to confront this issue and any further dialogue between Jews and Christians will, I suspect, need to do the same...

...In addition, Borowitz wisely cautions against what he calls "category-error," the kind of noncommunication that can take place even within a single tradition when liberals talk past conservatives, and vice versa, because they proceed from entirely different world views and epistemologies...

...Those areas where he finds Christian theologians more compatible with Judaism-such as Gustafson's construction of a justice ethic or Niebuhr's models for relating religion to culture-are precisely the areas where, as Borowitz suggests, Christ talk may be "dispensed with" and other categories such as God or commandment may be substituted...

...Allow me to mention a few...

...Borowitz touches on this in considering Niebuhr's theology, but the question is not pursued with the same thoroughness as other issues...

...Borowitz's study is a model of what sound interreligious exchange should be, a remarkable achievement, especially in the Jewish-Christian dialogue...

...It is not simply that he has understood Christian thinkers remarkably well for someone outside the tradition (and, by the way, forthrightly admits those instances when he cannot comprehend a point...

...With the aid of the American Theological Society, Borowitz chose eleven modern theologians as his dialogue partners...

...The vigorous dialogue of the book also highlights some aspects of Jewish thought which remain blurred and in need of further elucidation for a Christian...