Judaism-The genius of self-renewal:

...These five interrelated volumes establish Jacob Neusner as a major figure in the rethinking not only of Judaism but of all religious traditions in our day...

...In many ways the Jewish community preceded Catholicism, and even Protestantism (outside very limited theological circles with little impact on actual faith practice), in confronting the issues of modernity...

...Basic Books...

...21.95...

...Death and Birth of Judaism has the broadest appeal of the volumes discussed here...

...The first is Neusner's contention that the various Judaisms he examines-both the ancient Judaism of the "dual Torah" as well as the nineteenth- and twentieth-century forms-began' with their own time and place and only then went on to search for a usable past that could undergird the directions that the present seemed to dictate...

...the achievement of a common framework of interreligious discourse in medieval Spain (something David Burrell has brought to the fore in recent writings...

...If so, most Christians, including liberal theologians, will find that, without further refinement, such a thesis is unacceptable...

...Neusner's perspectives here dovetail with the growing emphasis on local theologies found in the writings of such Christian theologians as my CTU colleague, Robert Schreiter...

...For example, is Neusner recommending that the selection of religious myths be dictated primarily by political circumstances...

...The third title, also a scholarly work but not as daunting as the previous two volumes, focuses primarily on Judaism's adaptation to a new social situation: the emergence of Christianity as the dominant religion of the empire with the conversion of Constantine...

...I am not saying with certainty that this is what he holds...

...and the impact of the contemporary Christian-Jewish dialogue...

...Neusner's approach is definitely non-dogmatic...

...Neusner finds the Bavli superior to the earlier edition of the Talmud, since only the Bavli has managed to produce a synthesis between the Mishnah and the Hebrew Scriptures...

...The books reviewed here expose us to the full range of Neusner's interests and reveal how masterful he is in each area...

...Death and Birth of Judaism: The Impact of Christianity, Secular ism, and the Holocaust on Jewish Faith...

...The first two, on the Bavli (the Babylonian version of the Talmud) and on "Leviticus Rabbah," continue his scientific treatment of formative texts in classical Judaism, are quite technical, and will prove challenging for anyone not conversant with modern scientific methods of textual exegesis...

...Out of this vacuum, several systems of Jewish self-consciousness emerged, the most prominent being the Reform, the Orthodox, and finally the Conservative Judaisms...

...Second, Neusner understands religion not only as a set of beliefs, but as a decisive fact of social reality...

...Judaism and Scripture is part of the same general series of textual commentaries...

...The realities of the twentieth century necessitated further adaptation in Jewish identity as economic dislocation, nationalism, world wars, and a virulent anti-Semitism buffeted the Jewish community...

...Judaism: The Classical Statement: The Evidence of the Bavll...

...The only point might be some needed acknowledgment of a transitory moment of more authentic dialogue in medieval Spain...

...All had to grapple not only with the issue of internal identity, but with the question of Jews as citizens of the new pluralistic nation-states that arose in Europe and North America...

...The final volume deals with the ongoing significance of Jewish ritual...

...His analysis of the various Judaisms over the centuries has something significant to contribute, he believes, to the study of religion in general and in a special way to the development of Western religion in the modern and contemporary periods...

...Whatever the limits of his provisional thesis, whatever the omissions, his thought bears consideration by anyone seriously concerned with the question of religious identity in the modern world...

...One of the problems, even in Birth and Death, is that Neusner's personal view is never clearly set forth...

...These volumes reveal a person of sound scholarship, wide literary talent, and uncanny insight into the faith/modernity problem...

...the world of Jewish mysticism...

...It is through participation in Jewish ritual-rather than any particular classical myth of Jewish identity-that the Jewish community will remain vigorous in the midst of changing political circumstances...

...There remain, however, questions a-bout the directions Neusner seems to take in this volume...

...ture directions...

...Jewish identity, however much this might be denied by the Jewish leadership of a particular age, was actually determined by the prevailing political climate of the time, at least in the West...

...With the growing awareness of the profound impact of Second Temple Judaism on Jesus and apostolic Christianity, Neusner's reflections on basic Jewish celebrations (such as the Seder and circumcision) which undergird the Christian sacramental tradition will prove extremely useful...

...These rituals and customs transform ordinary experiences into something sacred...

...Even the Exodus myth does not emerge for him as an important, continuing shaper of Jewish identity...

...And the central thrust of Neusner's analysis, that basic myths are not that crucial in shaping a particular form of religious expression, needs serious consideration...

...In this volume Neusner tries to show how the traditional rituals associated with meals, circumcision, bar and bat mitz-vah, marriage, the Seder, the Sabbath, the high holy days, and death, work to "enchant," not merely convince...

...Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantino, University of Chicago, $27.50, 246 pp...

...Neusner feels, however, that the rituals of the community-which have lost favor among contemporary Jews in comparison with individual and family rituals-need to be enhanced...

...The larger question, however, is whether this emphasis on ritual will be sufficient to maintain community identity...

...In addition to the commentary, it contains the first English translation of "Leviticus Rabbah...

...He is the author of eight books including Christ in Light of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue (Paulist...

...For anyone concerned with the ongoing problem of relating classical religion to the world-views of the modern era, Neusner's perspective will prove intriguing...

...Although Neusner admits that his notion of the various Judaisms is very much in a formative phase, there are a number of omissions which need to be included in a truly comprehensive picture: the experience of Oriental Jewry...

...While many of these responses were hostile to the Jewish religious tradition, they sought a form of "redemption" in the Jewish experience...

...It is this sense of the sacred that keeps a measure of stability in Jewish identity as the world about changes...

...In Death and Birth Neusner has presented a most challenging interpretation of the history of Judaism...

...I fundamentally agree with his argument that it has value for anyone dealing with the religion/society problem...

...Unlike the previous two volumes, it can be taken up by the nonscholar...

...And now in Death and Birth of Judaism, he has ventured out to assess Christian and Jewish interactions in the modern world...

...The fourth title outlines Judaism's shaping by Christianity, its JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI, O.S.M., is a professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago with a special interest in Christian-Jewish relations...

...confrontation with modernity, with secularism and the Holocaust...

...Death and Birth takes us through the various responses that developed, including Zionism, yiddishism, Jewish socialism, and post-Holocaust theology...

...The methodological examples set by the rabbis may prove far more helpful for us today than the particular content of their reflections...

...Three other points need to be made regarding Death and Birth, and indicate the value of this volume beyond the Jewish community...

...Again, however, the emerging re-definitions were the direct result of significant changes in Christianity...

...Like the first two volumes, this book is written in a reasonably lively style for its genre...

...Again, technical material is present in abundance...

...Judaism and Seriptare: The Evidence of Levitiaus Rabbah, University of Chicago, $50, 641 pp...

...And do these communal experiences breed, however unwittingly, a willingness to go along with the political status quo...

...But that, of course, was followed by the horror of the Inquisition...

...The creative element consists in Neusner's demonstration of how the rabbis used biblical books, such as Leviticus, to open up new insights for the changed circumstances in which the Jewish community later found itself...

...It is not surprising that at a Christian/Jewish/ Muslim dialogue at the Pontifical University in Salamanca, Spain, in 1986, several Western European Muslim speakers said their fundamental interest in Judaism was in learning from Jewish successes and failures in shaping an identity as a minority in a pluralistic society...

...He compares and analyzes them on the central themes of history, Messiah, and Israel with the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Genesis Rabbah, and the Leviticus Rabbah...

...224 pp...

...He has produced major scholarly analyses of traditional Jewish biblical and rabbinic materials (often applying contemporary scientific methods to them for the first time), and also acted as a popular teacher of Judaism for a nonscholarly community...

...Anything but isolation was the real picture...

...They helped give credence to the selective use of Scripture, based on altered social needs and conditions...

...University of Chicago...

...Even in this fairly narrow, scholarly treatise, Neusner brings to the fore one of his overarching themes: how can a classical religious tradition find authentic room for meaningful expression in the context of modernity in which the rational, technological mindset has seized the intellectual and cultural throne...

...Neusner's principal focus here is on the works of the Christian theologians Euse-bius, Aphrahat, and John Chrysostom...

...He notes that the conclusions reached in this ancient polemical dialogue shaped the relationship between the two religions for their subsequent shared history in the West...

...The rabbis showed how Scripture could ' 'provide a source of paradigms, the opposite of a one-time event...

...Judaism is in a period of reappropriation, reclaiming the classical Judaism of the "dual Torah" and its primary stress on sanctification rather than salvation...

...There is little on which to fault Neusner in his presentation of this early period...

...With the onset of the American and French revolutions, "Christianity lost its status as self-evident truth to Christians in parts of the West...

...Death and Birth of Judaism brings us to the time when the first challenges to the "dual Torah" tradition-created by rabbinic Judaism in response to the new imperial power of Christianity-begin to surface...

...Again his basic motif of the self-renewing capacity of the Jewish tradition emerges...

...In Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine, Neusner challenges the notion that Judaism developed in splendid isolation after Christianity's sudden entrance into imperial power...

...It offers rewarding possibilities for a general audience, as well as for litur-gists, whether the scholarly or the pastoral...

...Neusner's own perspective on how to shape Jewish consciousness today emerges most clearly in The Enchantments of Judaism...

...Finally, Neusner regards the Jews as a paradigm for humanity's struggle as a whole...

...He offers an overview of Judaism's successes and failures, and also suggests possible fuBooks By Jacob Hearner The Enchantments of Judaism: Rites of Transformation from Birth through Death, Basic Books, $15.95...

...380 pp...

...This, in turn, resulted in the concomitant loss of the hold upon Jews of the self-identification forged out of Judaism's encounter with classical Christian truth claims...

...The fundamental critical issue is "the relationship between religious ideas and the circumstances, in particular in politics, of the society that holds them: the interplay, therefore, of religious contents and political and social context...

...He has joined scholarly and popular discussions of the meaning of the Jewish tradition today, especially in America...

...37, 270 pp...

...His writings deserve greater exposure in Christian circles...

...In fact, the Jewish pattern of reaction/adaptation to external political pressures was set at this time...

...His creative insight comes in what follows...

...As I noted earlier, while this may be good grist for the mill of local theologies, there is almost the insinuation in Neusner that all theologies ought to be localized responses to changing times and circumstances...

...Turning to the individual volumes, Neusner's redactional interpretation of the Babylonian Talmud offers solid background information on the sources, organization, and composition of the Bavli...

...For Neusner, such an examination must lead to constructive participation in contemporary society and not merely isolation...

...This synthesis in turn opens possibilities for the ongoing renewal of the Jewish tradition...

...He discusses the relationship of the Bavli to the Mishnah and especially the earlier version of the Talmud, the Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud...