Soundings in the Religion of Jesus: Perspectives and Methods in Jewish and Christian Scholarship

Jesus was a Jew and not a Christian. That affirmation may seem obvious, but here an international cast of Jewish and Christian scholars spell out its weighty and often complex consequences for contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. Soundings in the Religion of Jesus contextualizes Jesus and the writings about him that set the stage for Jewish-Christian relations for the next two thousand years.

Of equal importance, this book considers the reception, celebration, and (too often) the neglect of Jesus' Jewishness in modern contexts and the impact such responses have had for Jewish-Christian relations. Topics explored include the ethics of scriptural translation, the ideological motives of Nazi theologians and other "quests" for the Historical Jesus, and the ways in which New Testament portraits of Jesus both help and hurt authentic Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Bruce Chilton, a priest of the Anglican Communion and currently Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Bard College, is a scholar of early Christianity and Judaism. His most recent books are Aramaic Jesus: Tradition, Identity, and Christianity's Mother Tongue (Baylor University Press) and Berenice: Queen in Roman Judea (Yale University Press).

Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism at Bard College and the author of numerous books on Judaism.