JESUS THROUGH JEWISH EYES: Rabbis and Scholars Engage an Ancient Brother in a New Conversation

How do Jews understand Jesus? In this slender book, 19 Jewish writers answer that question. Joseph Gelberman's "My Friend, Jesus" compellingly suggests that Jesus himself would be distraught at all the anti-Jewish violence perpetrated by Christians in his name. Lawrence Kushner offers a moving ode to the Christian priest who, 25 years ago, helped him "understand about how God might really become a person." Arnold Jacob Wolf raises (though does not answer) pressing questions about perceived anti-Semitism in the Gospels. Not all of the contributions are essays: the opening poem by Laura Bernstein, "A Jew Writing About Jesus the Jew," is alone worth the price of admission. But the anthology is uneven. Some of the essays here do little more than rehearse understandings of Jesus that have been central to the historical Jesus debates for years: Daniel Matt, for example, trots out the familiar (and anachronistic) idea that Jesus was "a Galilean Hasid." Some Christian readers will quickly grow tired of the volume's repeated insistence that, as Allen Secher puts it, "Jesus was 'the son of God' and so are we all," perhaps trivializing the theological uniqueness of Jesus. Many Christians will also look askance at the editor's insistence that the historical Jesus can be separated from the Jesus of church tradition. Still, both Jewish readers looking for fresh ways of thinking about Jesus and Christians who are interested in situating Jesus in his Jewish context will find this volume useful. (Sept.)