David Novak

Probably the most important cultural phenomenon in contemporary Jewry is the rise of what some have called the “ ba’al teshuvah movement.” This is the return to traditional Judaism by a number of young Jews who had heretofore been estranged from it. These young Jews have brought a . . . . Continue Reading »

The following is the second in a series that examines through the prism of a key figure each century of the millennium now coming to a close. David Novak considers the twelfth century and Moses Maimonides. Next month: Romanus Cessario on the thirteenth century and Thomas Aquinas. ”The Editors . . . . Continue Reading »

Something very significant has happened to Jewish-Christian relations, especially Jewish-Catholic relations. Last March, the Vatican issued the statement “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah,” which was prepared under the direction of Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, president of the . . . . Continue Reading »

This massive book is a collection of two hundred responses to personal inquiries about particular moral dilemmas written by one of the most important”and most controversial”Catholic moral theologians at work today. The responsa of Germain Grisez selected for presentation here cover . . . . Continue Reading »

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness By Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner Yale University Press. 416 pp. $35 Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907“1972) was the most significant Jewish thinker ever to live and work in America. His significance is such that without him no Jewish thinker of my . . . . Continue Reading »

The God of Israel and Christian Theology By R. Kendall Soulen Fortress, 195 pp. $19 paper. This book is an impressive debut by a young Protestant theologian, R. Kendall Soulen. It began as his dissertation at Yale, but unlike most dissertations in theology, it is much more than a demonstration of . . . . Continue Reading »

The right to privacy has both positive and negative connotations for those who consider themselves part of the natural law tradition. On the one hand, a significant part of the experience of political totalitarianism in this century has been the total disregard for human privacy. The intimacies of . . . . Continue Reading »

I Modernity has been largely shaped for Jews by three momentous experiences: the acquisition of citizenship by individual Jews in secular nation-states, the destruction of one-third of Jewry in the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel. All three of these experiences are essentially . . . . Continue Reading »

Jewish Polemics by Arthur Hertzberg Columbia University Press, 259 pages, $27.95 Jewish Polemics is a collection of essays written over the past ten years or so by the well-known American rabbi, professor, and communal leader Arthur Hertzberg. The title of the collection is aptly chosen: anyone who . . . . Continue Reading »

I By now it is obvious that in the past twenty-five years or so there has been considerable progress in the Jewish-Christian relationship. Overcoming centuries of mutual hostility or indifference, some Jews and Christians are now able to engage in honest and fruitful dialogue and, as religious . . . . Continue Reading »