New and Notable: Recent Publications of Interest - Information Resources - Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies



	Information Resources New and Notable *Recent Publications of Interest* (List posted in September 2007) In an effort to help interested readers keep abreast of new publications in the disciplines that lie at the heart of the work of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, we offer a short list of recently-published books and brief descriptions of each book. These descriptions are not reviews: No positive or negative judgments are offered with regard to the books' contents. New and Notable: The Historical Jesus in Context, edited by Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison Jr., and John Dominic Crossan Christ Killers, by Jeremy Cohen The Templeless Age, by Jill Middlemas The Misunderstood Jew, by Amy-Jill Levine Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison Jr., and John Dom-inic Crossan, editors. The Historical Jesus in Context. Princeton University Press, 2006. This volume is a source book, an anthology of primary texts, that places the Gospel narratives into their full literary, social, and archaeological context. An impressive group of scholars analyze a wide range of Christian, Coptic, Jewish, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian texts to provide a new portrait of the historical Jesus in a broad cultural setting. The sub-ject matter of these texts includes such diverse items as pagan prayers, private inscriptions, miracle tales, mar-tyrdoms, parables, fables, divorce decrees, and imperial propaganda. This is a scholarly book that will also be of interest to any layperson fascinated by the quest for the historical Jesus. It teaches us that we can only really understand Jesus if we understand as well the larger Græco-Roman world in which he lived and taught. Contributors to this volume include: Dale C. Allison Jr., Alan J. Avery-Peck, Herbert W. Basser, Calum Car-michael, Randall D. Chesnutt, Bruce Chilton, Wendy Cotter, John Dominic Crossan, Mary Rose D'Angelo, Mark DelCogliano, Robert Doran, Craig A. Evans, Peter Flint, David B. Gowler, Ian H. Henderson, Teresa J. Hornsby, Jonathan Klawans, John S. Kloppenborg, Amy-Jill Levine, Dennis R. MacDonald, Thomas A. J. McGinn, Marvin Meyer, George W. E. Nickelsburg, Bradley M. Peper, Gary G. Porton, Jonathan L. Reed, Gregory E. Sterling, Charles H. Talbert, Joseph L. Trafton, Lawrence M. Wills, and Ben Witherington III. Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at the Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion of Van-derbilt University. Dale C. Allison Jr. is Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Chris-tianity at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. John Dominic Crossan is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at DePaul University. If you would like to purchase this book, click here. Return to list. Jeremy Cohen. Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion From the Bible to the Big Screen. Oxford University Press, 2007. The Passion narratives in the Gospels hold the Jews responsible, directly and indirectly, for the death of the one Christians worship as the Son of God. This notion that all Jews in all times and places are col-lectively responsible for the Crucifixion has long been, and continues to be, a major source of Christian anti-Judaism and antisemitism. Jeremy Cohen has no interest in explaining Jesus' death or assigning blame for it. Rather, he seeks to understand "how the identification of Jews as Christ Killers has functioned as an edifying ‘myth’ for the Christian community." His analysis un-covers both the spiritual truth that Christians find in this element of the Passion narratives and the tremendous impact it has had in the imagination of the Western world. In Christ Killers Cohen traces this myth from its origins to the present day, from the Gospels to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, and covers a great deal of territory in between -- the Church Fathers, the Crusades, the blood libels of the Middle Ages, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, Passion plays, modern films, and Christian mysticism, art, and popular piety. David I. Kertzer, author of The Popes Against the Jews, calls Cohen's book "absorbing, if chilling, reading." Jeremy Cohen has three times won the National Jew-ish Book Award. Among his books are The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism and Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Chris-tianity. Jeremy Cohen has taught Jewish history at Cornell University, The Ohio State University, and Tel Aviv University. If you would like to purchase this book, click here. Return to list. Jill Middlemas. The Templeless Age: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the "Exile." Westminster John Knox Press, 2007. This book, which is intended for both students and scholars, presents a survey of the most recent historical and archaeological research on the community that remained in Judah following the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. The author seeks to recover in the biblical texts the lost voice of this community. One of the stated purposes of the book is to provide an introduction to historical, literary, and theological insights on a signifi-cant period in ancient Israel (587 - 515 BCE). This introduction is organized thematically, highlighting the themes of communication, creativity, memory, inheri-tance, and inclusion that united Jews in Egypt, Judah, and Babylonia. This work also contains brief introduc-tions to the kinds of literature that came out of the sixth century BCE -- laments, historiography, prophecy, and law. The unusual term used in the title -- "templeless" -- was coined by the author to express her concerns about calling this period in Israel's history "the exile." She sug-gests that the use of a new name for the period might enable a different understanding of it. Each chapter of the book includes a reading list both of works cited in the chapter and of works that provide further reading. Jill Middlemas is Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology at Aarhus University in Denmark. She is the author of The Troubles of Templeless Judah. If you would like to purchase this book, click here. Return to list. You may also be interested in Amy-Jill Levine's The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. This book was the subject of an interview with Dr. Levine con-ducted by ICJS Executive Director Christopher Leighton as part of the weekly radio show "Encounters," broad-cast on WYPR 88.1 FM. Click here to read the interview. If you would like to purchase this book, click here. Return to list. Who We Are :: What We Do :: Events Calendar Clergy and Educators :: Scholars' Corner :: Newsletter Information Resources :: Get Involved :: Home
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