Bruce Chilton

A biblical scholar offers a close-up look at the religious and cultural forces that shaped the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, drawing on recent archaeological discoveries to furnish a vivid account of the political forces, social customs, and religious beliefs and practices of the period and analyzing ancient texts to examine Jesus's early life. Reprint.

An Intimate Biography

Rabbi Jesus

The first study to develop a theory of sacrifice and then apply it to the sources of early Judaism as well as Jesus's activity. Ritual sacrifice was one of the greatest concerns and most widely shared activities among Jews prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. There is therefore a pressing need for systematic understanding of sacrifice, both as an element of Judaic religion and a context for Jesus's activity. The Temple of Jesus provides a theoretical model of sacrifice and develops that model to analyze classic texts from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish War of Josephus, and it argues that Jesus can only be appreciated as driven by a program to enact his own conception of Israel's purity in sacrifice in order to occasion the disclosure of God's kingdom. Chilton contends that sacrifice is construed as a fundamentally social, "pre-civilized" activity involving pragmata as defined as pure, an emotional affect for participants, and an ideology according to which sacrifice occasions a change of life in the community, thus rejecting current anthropological studies that attempt to explain sacrifice genetically. He shows that texts from Ezekiel, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy share a conviction that the covenant with Israel ensures the validity of sacrifice, even as they define purity in various ways and emphasize differing affects of sacrifice. Finally, Chilton provides a new approach to Jesus, comparing and contrasting his occupation of the Temple with the cultic activities of prominent Pharisees of his period.

His Sacrificial Program Within a Cultural History of Sacrifice

The Temple of Jesus

"Redeeming Time "addresses the temporal imbalance and disorientation that is widely reported in the post-industrial West. The essay evolves by analyzing the philosophical and aesthetic contexts, first of our own experience of time, then of the Judaic context within which the Gospels developed, and finally of the Gospels themselves. In this way, Chilton interprets the visions of eternity in Israel's Scriptures and in the New Testament that healed the breaches of time in their own epochs and still have the power to do so in ours.

The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars

Redeeming Time

A portrait of Saint Paul identifies his crucial role in the formation of Christianity while considering how beliefs about his character have transformed him from a premiere apostle into a doctrine-promoting antifeminist and homophobe.

An Intellectual Biography

Rabbi Paul

Jacob Neusner

This work sketches the many portraits of the Pharisees that emerge from ancient sources. Based upon the Gospels, the writings of Paul, Josephus, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and archeology, the volume profiles the Pharisees and explores the relationship between the Pharisees and the Judaic religious system foreshadowed by the library of Qumran. A great virtue of this study is that no attempt is made to homogenize the distinct pictures or reconstruct a singular account of the Pharisees; instead, by carefully considering the sources, the chapters allow different pictures of the Pharisees to stand side by side.

In Quest of the Historical Pharisees

Explores Mary Magdalene's key role in the ministry of Jesus and the development of early Christianity, tracing the changing images of Mary and the legends surrounding her and exploring why the Church sought to marginalize her significance.

A Biography

Mary Magdalene

Matthew Fox

Examines corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI; details Fox's personal twelve-year battle with Ratzinger; and offers ideas for a new Catholicism celebrating justice, critical thinking, and diversity.

Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved

The Pope's War

Anthony Le Donne

Jesus was a Jew and not a Christian. That affirmation may seem obvious, but here an international cast of Jewish and Christian scholars spell out its weighty and often complex consequences for contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. Soundings in the Religion of Jesus contextualizes Jesus and the writings about him that set the stage for Jewish-Christian relations for the next two thousand years. Of equal importance, this book considers the reception, celebration, and (too often) the neglect of Jesus' Jewishness in modern contexts and the impact such responses have had for Jewish-Christian relations. Topics explored include the ethics of scriptural translation, the ideological motives of Nazi theologians and other "quests" for the Historical Jesus, and the ways in which New Testament portraits of Jesus both help and hurt authentic Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Perspectives and Methods in Jewish and Christian Scholarship

Soundings in the Religion of Jesus

A conclusion relates the practices identified to the sources behind the Gospels, and shows how practice is key to the meanings of eucharistic texts.

Eucharistic Theologies from Jesus Through Johannine Circles

A Feast of Meanings

Examines corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, details Fox's personal twelve-year battle with Ratzinger, and offers ideas for a new Catholicism, celebrating justice, critical thinking, and diversity.

Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and how it Can be Saved

In 1830 philosopher Auguste Comte coined the term altruism to provide a general definition for the act of selflessly caring for others. But does this modern conception of sacrificing one's own interests for the well-being of others apply to the charitable behaviors encouraged by all world religions? In Altruism in World Religions prominent scholars from an array of religious perspectives probe the definition of altruism to determine whether it is a category that serves to advance the study of religion. Exploring a range of philosophical and religious thought from Greco-Roman philia to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from Hinduism in India to Buddhism and the religions of China and Japan, the authors find that altruism becomes problematic when applied to religious studies because it is, in fact, a concept absent from religion. Chapters on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reveal that followers of these religions cannot genuinely perform self-sacrificing acts because God has promised to reward every good deed. Moreover, the separation between the self and the other that self-sacrifice necessarily implies, runs counter to Buddhist thought, which makes no such distinction. By challenging our assumptions about the act of self-sacrifice as it relates to religious teachings, the authors have shown altruism to be more of a secular than religious notion. At the same time, their findings highlight how charitable acts operate with the values and structures of the religions studied.

Altruism in World Religions

Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner study the points of comparisons and contrast between formative Christianity and Judaism. By identifying three categories of authority in each of the two religious worlds, they show how they have both worked in compelling or failing to get someone to do a given action. The arguments are introduced by a general discussion of the founding figures of the two religions, Moses and Jesus, and how their inherent authority distilled itself through the structure of their religious institutions and intellectual thoughts.

Types of Authority in Formative Christianity and Judaism

Christianity: The Basics is a compelling introduction to both the central pillars of the Christian faith and the rich and varied history of this most global of global religions. This book traces the development of Christianity through an exploration of some of the key beliefs, practices and emotions which have been recurrent symbols through the centuries: Christ, the kingdom of heaven and sin Baptism, Eucharist and prayer Joy, divine union and self denial Encompassing the major epochs of Christian history and examining the unity and divisions created by these symbols, Christianity: The Basics is both a concise and comprehensive introduction to the Christian tradition.

Christianity: The Basics

William Green

Elliot R. Wolfson

James A. Brundage

Alan J. Avery-Peck

Amila Buturovic

Emil Homerin

Jon Levenson

Olivia Remie Constable

Seymour Feldman

World Religions Religious Foundations of Western Civilization introduces students to the major Western world religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—their beliefs, key concepts, history, as well as the fundamental role they have played, and continue to play, in Western culture. Contributors include: Jacob Neusner, Alan J. Avery-Peck, Bruce D. Chilton, Th. Emil Homerin, Jon D. Levenson, William Scott Green, Seymour Feldman, Elliot R. Wolfson, James A. Brundage, Olivia Remie Constable, and Amila Buturovic. "This book provides a superb source of information for scientists and scholars from all disciplines who are trying to understand religion in the context of human cultural evolution." David Sloan Wilson, Professor, Departments of Biology and Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York This is the right book at the right time. Globalization, religious revivalism, and international politics have made it more important than ever to appreciate the significant contributions of the Children of Abraham to the formation and development of Western civilization. John L. Esposito, University Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Muslm-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology, and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. General Interest/Other Religions/Comparative Religion

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Religious Foundations of Western Civilization

The way of Jesus means that despite our tears and scars, we can become vessels of divine light. A young man loses his wife while their baby escapes without injury. In abject grief he reaches out to a friend for solace. What words of comfort are even possible? How can Jesus repair and renew these lives in this world? Author Bruce Chilton begins in the everyday. He shows how following Jesus not only repairs shattered lives, but renews them. While no broken life is ever simply reassembled and although there is no magic going back to the pristine, repair and renewal will empower us to truly live and love again. But our path requires something from us--mindful practice of Jesus' teachings about the soul, spirit, kingdom, insight, forgiveness, mercy, and glory.

Bruce Chilton

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