Download The Soul of Christianity By Huston Smith

JUDAISM AND
CHRISTIANITY
Adapted from
Huston Smith’s The Soul of
Christianity
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4 Interpretations of Holy Text
 Literal
 What does the text explicitly assert?
 Ethical
 What does the text tell individuals that they should and should not do?
 Allegorical
 What are the meanings that Jesus' parables, for example, convey?
 Anagogic
 What inspiration can people draw from the text? "Inspiration" that with
the aid of the Holy Spirit, points them to higher realms in an endless
attempt to reach perfection.
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Holy Books
 The most holy Jewish book is the Torah (the first five books of the
Hebrew Bible) which was revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai
over 3,000 years ago.
 The Torah, together with the Talmud (commentary on the Torah), give
the Jewish people rules for everyday life. Observing these rules is
central to the Jewish religion
 The Christian holy book is the Bible. It is divided into the Old and
New Testaments.
 The New Testament teaches that God sent his only son, Jesus
Christ, to restore the broken relationship between people and God
which had been caused by human wrong doing.
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•The Jewish World View:
Absolute perfection reigns as God
 God endowed human beings with intelligence and
freedom
The human soul is “God-like”: "The kingdom of God is
within you.”
People have the potential to go to heaven if they live by
the rules of the Torah, do good deeds, and walk a
spiritual path
The Messiah will come and bring peace to the world
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•The Christian World View:
 The Christian world is Infinite
 Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and an incarnation of God
 People have the potential to go to heaven if they walk a spiritual
path and accept Jesus as their Savior.
 Absolute perfection reigns as God
 God endowed human beings with intelligence and freedom
 The human soul is God-like "The kingdom of God is within you.”
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THE ORGINS OF THE
JUDAISM
 Judaism has about 13 million followers throughout the world, mostly in
USA and Israel. 267,000 people in the UK said that their religious
identity was Jewish (2001 census).
 The Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (“Israel”) are the origins of the
Hebrew people
 Judaism originated in the Middle East over 3500 years ago.
 Jews were enslaved in ancient Egypt and freed by Moses (more than
3300 years ago)
 Judaism is ethnically grounded in lineage, language, and history
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The Origins of Christianity
•Christianity is the largest religion in the world with over 2 billion followers.
42 million people in Britain today describe themselves as Christian, and
there are 6 million who are actively practicing.
•Christianity is focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who
Christians believe to be the Son of God. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
the Middle East over 2000 years ago.
•Christianity began with the controversy over whether Jesus was or was
not the Messiah
•Christians honor their Jewish heritage.
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Judaism Teaches
 A “covenant relationship” exists between God and the Hebrew people
 Religion is the celebration and sanctification of life
 There is only one God
 There were prophets of old – especially Moses, through whom Torah
was revealed to the Hebrew people
 The Torah (first five books of the Bible), contains religious, moral and
social laws which guide the life of a Jew
 the Hebrew Bible does not include the New Testament
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Christianity teaches:
•Religion is the celebration and sanctification of life
•There is only one God
•There are prophets of old – including Moses, John, and Paul whom
are chosen to reveal God’s message
•The Torah (first five books of the Bible), and the New Testament
(including the Gospels and Revelations) contain religious, moral and
social laws which guide the life of a Christian
•God's revelation is passed along with:
• the New Testament
• the church fathers
• great theologians and saints
• The outreach of believers
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The Historical Jesus
 Christianity is founded on concrete events, and actual
historical happenings rather than abstract principles.
 The biographical details of Jesus' life are meager, but both
Jews and Christians acknowledge his existance.
 He was a charismatic prophet who stood in a tradition that
stretched back to the beginning of Hebrew history.
 Jesus was a miraculous healer and exorcist according to
Biblical accounts.
 While Christians believe he was the son of God, Jews view
him as great teacher.
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Jesus as a man…
 Jesus was deeply Jewish.
 He concluded that certain exclusive qualities of Judaism
compromised God's impartial, all-encompassing love for
everyone.
 He claimed that God's revelation to the Jews was too
important to be confined to a single ethnic group.
 The mission of Jesus and his followers was to release
God’s word to a ready and waiting world.
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The Development of the Church
 The first Christians spread their beliefs throughout the
Mediterranean world
 Christ founded Christianity, Paul founded the Christian
church
 Paul used the human body to symbolize the church: The
church was the Mystical Body of Christ.
 Christ was the head of this body
 the Holy Spirit its soul
 Individual Christians were its cells.
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The Mind of the Church: Beliefs
 The Incarnation:
 affirms that Christ was God-man; simultaneously both fully God
and fully man.
 The Atonement:
 affirms that people must seek forgiveness for their imperfections
(reconciliation)
 The Trinity:
 holds that while God is fully one, God is also three.
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The Mind of the Church:
Beliefs Continued…
Life Everlasting:
 Eternal life is life of a higher order than life on earth
Hell :
 The state of total aloneness - not being connected to
anything.
The Virgin Birth:
 The beginning of Christianity
Apocalypse:
 the storyline of impending disasters followed by final
salvation.
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THE THREE MAIN
BRANCHES OF
CHRISTIANITY TODAY
 Starting in 1054 great divisions began to occur in
the Church.
 3 main branches evolved as a result
Roman Catholicism
Eastern Orthodoxy
 Protestantism
 Many other Christian denominations have
emerged since
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SYMBOLS OF JUDAISM
SYMBOLS OF CHRISTIANITY
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QUESTIONS FOR
FURTHER
DISCUSSION
1. What is the difference between Orthodox
and Reform practices?
2. What is Jewish Mysticism? What role does
the Kaballah play in this practice?
3. Who are the Hasidic Jews? In what ways
does Hasidism differ from other forms of
Judaism?
Questions for further discussion:
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