Author Topic: After saints, most-quoted author in pope's new book is a U.S. rabbi (Read 2047 times)

antyshemanic · « **on:** April 21, 2007, 08:29:29 PM »

After saints, most-quoted author in pope's new book is a U.S. rabbi

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After the Gospel writers and the apostle Paul, the author most quoted in Pope Benedict XVI's new book is Rabbi Jacob Neusner, a U.S. professor of religion and theology.

In his book, "Jesus of Nazareth," released April 16 in Italian, German and Polish, Pope Benedict joined the literary dialogue that Rabbi Neusner invented for himself in his 1993 book, "A Rabbi Talks With Jesus."

The pope said that Rabbi Neusner's "profound respect for the Christian faith and his faithfulness to Judaism led him to seek a dialogue with Jesus."

Imagining himself amid the crowd gathered on a Galilean hillside when Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount, Rabbi Neusner "listens, confronts and speaks with Jesus himself," the pope wrote.

"In the end, he decides not to follow Jesus," the pope wrote. "He remains faithful to that which he calls the 'eternal Israel.'"

Pope Benedict said Rabbi Neusner makes painfully clear the differences between Christianity and Judaism, but "in a climate of great love: The rabbi accepts the otherness of the message of Jesus and takes his leave with a detachment that knows no hatred."

The pope praised Rabbi Neusner for taking the Gospel of Jesus seriously and, in fact, more seriously than many modern Christian scholars do.

Jesus is the Son of God, the unique savior, and not simply a social reformer, a liberal rabbi or the teacher of a new morality, the pope said.

Pope Benedict wrote that in trying to understand who Jesus was and his relationship with his Jєωιѕн faith and with the Torah, the law given to Moses, Rabbi Neusner's book "was of great help."

Rabbi Neusner, a prolific author and professor at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., told Catholic News Service in Rome that he did not want to talk about the pope's book until he had seen it. The English edition is scheduled for a May release.

In the introduction to the revised and expanded 2000 edition of his book, Rabbi Neusner wrote, "If I had been in the land of Israel in the first century, I would not have joined the circle of Jesus' disciples. ... If I heard what he said in the Sermon on the Mount, for good and substantive reasons I would not have followed him.

"Where Jesus diverges from the revelation by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, he is wrong and Moses is right," Rabbi Neusner wrote.

In Pope Benedict's treatment of the Sermon on the Mount, 18 of the 25 pages refer to Rabbi Neusner's book.

"More than any of the other interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount with which I am familiar, this debate between a believing Jєω and Jesus, son of Abraham, conducted with respect and frankness, opened my eyes to the greatness of the word of Jesus and to the choice the Gospel places before us," the pope wrote.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, presenting the pope's book at an April 13 Vatican conference, said reading Rabbi Neusner's book was "one of the reasons" Pope Benedict decided to write his.

"What Pope Benedict says about the book (by Rabbi Neusner) is so essential for understanding his own book about Jesus," the cardinal said.

"More than discussions about exegetical methods" used to understand what the Scriptures say about Jesus, Cardinal Schonborn said, the pope has "at heart the discussion with the rabbi."

"Rabbi Neusner is so important for the book of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI" precisely because he accepts what Jesus says about himself in the Gospels, the cardinal said.

German Father Joseph Sievers, director of the Cardinal Bea Center for Judaic Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where Rabbi Neusner has been a guest speaker, said the rabbi "takes very seriously the extraordinary claims of Jesus: He is not just a rabbi teaching the golden rule."

Both Rabbi Neusner and Pope Benedict, Father Sievers said, "have a high Christology," emphasizing the divinity of Christ even if Rabbi Neusner cannot accept Christ's claim.

"(Rabbi) Neusner, even when he spoke here, did not try to find easy solutions or to bridge gaps" between Christians and Jєωs, Father Sievers said.

In his book, Rabbi Neusner said he hoped to contribute to Christian-Jєωιѕн dialogue by taking Christian teaching and Jєωιѕн teaching seriously.

"It is one model for a starting point for dialogue -- to recognize differences and not try to make them disappear or to hide them," Father Sievers said.

Father Sievers said Pope Benedict's new book is a further sign that he "is strong on Judaism, he respects it and he knows the contemporary scholarship."

"Basically, he loves a good discussion and so does (Rabbi) Neusner," he said.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0702134.htm

gladius_veritatis · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2007, 09:59:26 PM »

Quote

(so-called Pope) Benedict wrote that in trying to understand who Jesus was and his relationship with his Jєωιѕн faith and with the Torah, the law given to Moses, Rabbi Neusner's book "was of great help..."

"...Where Jesus diverges from the revelation by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, he is wrong and Moses is right," Rabbi Neusner wrote.

It is a "great help" to call Jesus is WRONG; essentially, to call Him a LIAR??? Benedict, who is praising this wretched Jєω, is quite a bold liar himself, yet most will not see.

Quote

"Basically, he loves a good discussion and so does (Rabbi) Neusner," he said.

But neither loves the truth.

Trinity · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2007, 09:35:07 AM »

I got that, too, Veritatis. Basically they love the sound of their own voices.

He takes Jesus seriously---and rejects Him. Isn't that the recipe for damnation? Words fail me after reading this tripe.

Cletus · « **Reply #3 on:** April 23, 2007, 04:09:38 PM »

I wonder how seriously the Rabbi takes Jesus. But that's only because I'm presupposing that he stops at saying that he would not have followed Him. For all I know the author of JESUS OF NAZARETH lauds him for being so honest and so highly Christological as to go on to say that he would have called for His crucifixion too.

In any case, Caiphas sounds a lot more serious about Jesus than this Rabbi seems to be. But even the Rabbi is lot more serious about Jesus than the LOW Christologists who control Christology in the Vatican II church. "Jesus was Man For Others, a prophet of non-judgmental and inclusivistic openness to Change."

The author of NAZARETH himself recently said that Jesus suffered from delusions. That betrays a certain lack of seriousness about such claims as: "I speak as the Father has bidden me. I speak what I have seen with the Faither."

So all in all, I'd say that the Rabbi who is at least serious about Jesus is a more respectable theological authority than a so-called Catholic churchman who doesn't really believe in Him either and doesn't take His claims quite as seriously.

For it is to be presumed that when Jesus claimed that all those who rejected Him were in bad faith at best and sons of Satan at worst He was being serious.

As for the modern Rabbi's appeal to Moses against Christ, a real Christian, or even a pagan slob who has a soft spot for the Tender Shepherd, has no ears for any soft words about the "sincerity" of such blasphemy. "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me."

There is no room in the Christian universe for the kind of respect that the author of JESUS OF NAZARETH shows a proudly unbelieving Rabbi. The author simply does not take the Master seriously on this point (among others). Not that there is not SOME attempt on the part of this author at serving Him as well as the master of Enlightened Modern Public Opinion on Interfaith Relations. But the Master said that we cannot serve two masters. The author of NAZARETH obviously does not take that admonition seriously either. Also obvious is which master he despises.

The top management of the new church of Vatican II proposes a bold statement of unbelief towards God the Son as something we should respect in an Age of Increased Jєωιѕн/Christian Dialogue. Even though it is Revealed Truth that the wrath of God abides on the one who is unbelieving towards Him, and that Jєωιѕн unbelief is especially heinous. I don't know. This sounds kind of wacky. Kind of lame. Taking Christ REALLY seriously on the part of the Jєωs meant wanting to KILL Him back in His own Day on earth.... Do we honor that? (Don't answer that. Vatican II churchmen do, actually.)

Maybe it's best just to be a Christian believer or at least a Christologically benighted pagan who in his heart of hearts thinks the world of the Rabbi (the Galilean one) and takes a dim view of those who pick apart his teachings in order to dismiss them. Best to leave the various sorts of unbelievers and apostates involved in this latest pop culture slap in the Holy Face to themselves.

This is just beautiful. They praise high Christology but blasphemous critics of the Master for at least taking Him seriously, which you can't count on among low Christology Catholic theologians and churchmen, who nonetheless remain in the Church's good graces.

They prefer Jєωs who posit a True Christ and reject Him to Catholics who posit a false Christ and patronize Him. And yet they accept the latter as members of the club in good standing who just might well take a page from the book of the former. And their own Christ is true enough that He proposes Himself as "a greater than the Temple", but false enough that He nonethless blesses their ecuмenical sensitivity, even if it is at His expense, as if He too has evolved beyond the pre-Vatican II exclusivistic triumphalism of "If God were your father, you would love Me."

And then certain types ask us with a pretense of scandal and wide-eyed wonder, "Why do you claim that the popes of Vatican II preach a new religion?"

Author Topic: After saints, most-quoted author in pope&#039;s new book is a U.S. rabbi (Read 2047 times)

Author Topic: After saints, most-quoted author in pope's new book is a U.S. rabbi (Read 2047 times)