Christian-Jewish Dialogue: Exploring Our Commonalities and Our Differences 


Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations   Volume 2, Number 1 (2007): R7-8 

Rottenberg, Christian-Jewish Dialogue R7 http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol2/iss1/art12 

 
Isaac C. Rottenberg, Christian-Jewish Dialogue:  

Exploring Our Commonalities and Our Differences  

 (Atlanta: Hebraic Heritage Press, 2005), paper, 275 pp. 

Reviewed by Alice L. Eckardt, Emerita Professor, Lehigh University  

 

Anyone seeking a single volume to understand the long and complex story of Christian-Jewish 
relations and its many issues, including the State of Israel, will find Rottenberg’s well-written and 
well-organized book most helpful.  The wealth of information will benefit both newcomers and 
veterans to the field. 
 
Rottenberg is convinced that “encounter with Judaism and with the reality of Israel is of 
immense significance to the life of the churches, including their search for greater unity among 
Christians” (p. 200).  For he holds that despite basic differences Judaism and Christianity share 
a basic vision of faith and history, and we are experiencing a new era in Christian-Jewish 
relations.  Nevertheless, many traditional Christian beliefs must be challenged, a view some 
Jewish thinkers embrace for Judaism as well (including David Flusser, Michael Kogan, Irving 
Greenberg, Michael Wyschogrod, pp. 42-44). 
 
The first (of six) sections introduces and explores the dynamics of dialogue from a number of 
perspectives including “danger signs along the road.”  The second and largest section deals 
with many doctrinal issues including the “Holocaust and Belief in a God of Holy Love,” covenant, 
contrasting fulfillment theologies, differing views of messianic redemption, law and sin, and 
apocalypse.  Unlike many who write in this field the author confronts the divisive issues of 
mission, Jewish converts, and “messianic Jews” several times.  The penultimate section, 
dealing not only with theology but also with various Christian responses and reactions to the 
State of Israel - - the “great ecumenical catalyst” (p. 200) – is of particular importance. 
 
Rottenberg not only has a personal relationship with converted Jews and with the Holocaust but 
a long professional career in the church and Christian-Jewish organizations. He considers 
viewpoints of a multitude of Jewish and Christian scholars on the many issues he explores.  At 
the same time his own responses and thoughts are openly expressed both in agreement and 
disagreement.  Yet the reader does not feel belabored but is free to reach his or her own 
conclusions. 
 
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, must of the Christian world slowly came to acknowledge the 
many centuries of church denigration of Judaism and its people and the consequent need for 
fundamental changes in its theology in this regard.  Some participants in the dialogue contend 
that even though many of the new insights have not reached the congregants of either 
community we have reached the time when we must each tackle more of the other’s troubling 
teachings with a new openness.  For example, Jews should recognize that “incarnation” was 
already present in the covenantal God’s dealings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and in a 
study of the gospels they might possibly hear the divine voice in the teaching of “the last of the 
great Jewish prophets.”  Christians ought to take into consideration the Jewish view of Jesus as 
a Jew living in expectation of the messianic age and dying while still hoping for its arrival; and 
see the kingdom of God concept as already current in that first century Jewish community of 
which Jesus was an intimate part. 

REVIEW



Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations   Volume 2, Number 1 (2007): R7-8 

Rottenberg, Christian-Jewish Dialogue R8 http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol2/iss1/art12 

 
Despite the dialogue the churches have been more hesitant in their consideration of the reborn 
State of Israel.  Rottenberg traces a positive stand on Jewish return to the Land back to 16th 
century Restorationists and follows this that forward through 17th century Puritanism, some 18th 
and 19th century American Protestantism, to the 1930s’ Pro-Palestine Federation of America, 
the early 1940s’ Christian Council on Palestine, and the post- World War II American Christian 
Palestine Committee.  After the 1967 Six Day War the National Christian Leadership Council for 
Israel brought together Roman Catholics and Protestants, as did the “Israel Study Group” (later 
renamed).  Evangelical Protestants initiated Bridges for Peace and the International Christian 
Embassy, Jerusalem.  But antithetical developments have occurred as well:  in the World 
Council of Churches, in the Vatican’s vacillation, among Christian denominations with historical 
missionary roots in Arab countries, and most recently in a move among some American 
Protestant denominations to withdraw funds from companies doing business in Israel so as to 
hurt that country’s economy (pp. 207-08). 
 
The Jewish “love affair with the land of Israel” persisted through “some of the darkest moments 
of history.”  And Rottenberg sees the State of Israel as “one of the great signs of hope in 
modern history [for it] represents a triumph of the human spirit in the post-Holocaust era” (pp. 
258-59). 
 
In the concluding chapter on “History: Horror and the Challenge of Hope” Rottenberg argues for 
the necessity of memory as we work for a better future, for otherwise we become dishonest and 
irresponsible.