Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus by Susannah Heschel

Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus by Susannah Heschel

Was Jesus the founder of Christianity of a teacher of Judaism? When he argued the latter based on the New Testament, Abraham Geiger ignited an intense debate that began in 19th-century Germany but continues in the late-20th century. Geiger was a pioneer of Reform Judaism and a founder of Jewish studies and developed a Jewish version of Christian origins. He contended that Jesus was a member of the pharisees, a progressive and liberalizing group within 1st-century Judaism, and that he taught nothing new or original. This argumant enraged German Protestant theologians, some of whom produced a tragic counterargument based upon racial theory. In this study Susannah Heschel traces the genesis of Geiger's argument and examines the reaction to it within Christian theology. She concludes that Geiger initiated an intellectual revolt by the colonized against the colonizer, an attempt not to assimilate into Christianity by adopting Jesus as a Jew, but to overthrow Christian intellectual hegemony by claiming that Christianity - and all of Western civilization - was the product of Judaism.

Susannah Heschel is an Eli Black Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in Dartmouth College's School of Religion. She is the editor of On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader and Moral Grandeur and Spirited Audacity: Writings on Abraham Joshua Heschel, as well as coeditor of Insider/Outsider: Multiculturalism and American Jewry.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780226329598
ISBN 10	0226329593
Title	Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus
Author	Susannah Heschel
Series	Chicago Studies In The History Of Judaism
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The University of Chicago Press
Year published	1998-04-11
Number of pages	332
Prizes	Winner of Jewish Book Council National Jewish Book Award: Jewish-Christian Relations 1998
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.