Has God Only One Blessing?: Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding

Are we rivals for God’s love? The Church has changed its thinking about Judaism, yet these changes are not yet known by most Christians. This compelling book, by respected religious-education theorist Mary Boys, makes the academic scholarship highly accessible. Her foremost challenge is for Christians to reexamine their two-fold tradition that Christianity has fulfilled the covenant and therefore replaced Judaism, and that the Jews, in rejecting Jesus, are now rejected by God. The book summarizes the Church’s shared history with Judaism … details the anti-Jewish bias in history, literature, and liturgy and how this bias exists today … and examines how Church treatment of Jews played a role in the Shoah. The issues are presented without being reduced to simplistic hate. The author also includes practical pastoral points, not only suggesting sensitive ways for Christians to relate to Jews, but also revealing how encounters with Judaism affect the way Christians think, teach, and preach about life. This book is important for pastors, preachers, faith formation directors, religious educators, and members of liturgy and evangelization teams. It’s also absorbing reading for adult classes, anyone interested in church history, all serious Christians, and Jews who want to situate the legacy of anti-Judaism while seeing substantial changes in thought.