The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and Other Dissenting Essays

If Jewish-Christian relations are to be established on an honest foundation, the facade of seeming harmony and concord must be broken through. The present uneasy state of accommodation assumes a Judeo-Christian tradition that never really existed. The author contends that the historical fact is one of theological enmity. For serious Christians and Jews , the true common ground should be not a doctrinal "historical myth" but a natural fraternity that would develop out if "de facto social and political co-existence." The common task of both faiths is the humane preparation of history for the Kingdom of God. The author argues for a Judeo-Christian critique of Western culture' the invigoration of a prophetic radicalism, a dissent from the harmonious conservatism of inherited religion. The essays are theological and historical; some are polemical. The major essays are extended inquiries into the grounds of the myth, its origins, its obfuscations and dishonesties.