Customer Reviews

Jewish Monotheism and Christian Trinitarian Doctrine

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This is a book of what could have been. The material is actually quite good, even though I have some disagreements. But the format of the book is horrible, and put a big dent in what could have been a great book.

The format of the book is supposed to be a dialogue between an Orthodox Jewish theologian and a Christian theologian. I couldn't resist reading such a book. Especially when you read that Prof. Lapide is an Orthodox Jew, yet he takes he Resurrection of Yeshua to be historical fact (he has also written a book on this which I have not read yet). Briefly, Prof. Lapide does believe that Yeshua is an acceptable path to God ... for Gentiles. He teaches multiple paths of salvation, citing that absolute claims of salvation are un-Jewish (despite that Isaiah writes things a little differently ...).

I was very disappointed to learn that most of the book is not really a dialogue. In fact, of the 90ish pages, less and about 33% is actual dialogue. And that is being generous because there are multiple dialogues, which comprise fractionated stories. The dialogues have little connection, and are far too short. Most annoying is that it seems major sections are absent from the main dialogue. This dialogue had some great moments, but is very poorly edited, making me scratch my head and wishing I was there because what is recorded is so unsatisfying.

Yet the book has some merit. The essay on Monotheism by Prof. Lapide was very informative, and essentially by far the best part of the book. This section covers a sort of historical overview of the concept of Monotheism and what it means to the Jew. The essay by Prof. Moltman is also insightful, and provided a quick but elucidating review of how the concept of a "suffering" God plays a role in Jewish and Christian thought. It was a bit hard to follow, but does make some good points worth hearing. There are other essays by some of the organizers, but I didn't find them very useful.

In all, this book is disappointing in its format and layout. But I am thankful I read it because I have acquired two interesting perspectives, that of Lapide and Moltman. I will read other works by these scholars in due time. At least this book opened my eyes in that regard.