Judaism and Christianity: Same But Different

This week's lecture introduces you to the ancient religious authorities in Judaism and Christianity. You will learn who the ancient Jewish Rabbis were and the significance of the Talmud and midrash. You will also be introduced to the early Church Fathers and the significance of Patristic literature.

Each session will include comparative texts, so that you can discover the characteristics of Rabbinic sources and the writings of the Church Fathers. By studying a few selected texts each week, you will gain the ability to uncover their similarities and differences.

The most difficult question for any religious tradition is: Why do bad things happen to good people? We will address this question and see how Judaism and Christianity respond to the question. We will also discuss why there is no definitive answer to this question and why a variety of differing responses appear in Judaism and Christianity.

This session will delve into the nature of the immortal soul: What is the soul, and what are the primary teachings about the soul in Judaism and Christianity? We will trace the concept of the soul from the Hebrew Bible through the Church Fathers.

While many people assume that Jews do not believe in heaven and hell, this session will show that heaven and hell do in fact play a prominent role in traditional Jewish belief. At the same time, you will learn how the Jewish and Christian views of heaven and hell have some important differences over the question of whether or not hell involves eternal damnation.

As we noted in the last session, it is a common misconception that Jews do not believe in the Messiah. This session will explore the Jewish concept of the Messiah and its origins in the Hebrew Bible, the centrality of King David as the ancestor of the Messiah, and how the Christian belief in the Messiah develops Jesus as the Jewish Messiah to the universal Christ.

For this session I have added a brief reading that outlines the development of the Jewish Messiah into the concept of Christ as the Son of God. This article is written by a Jewish scholar, Joseph Klausner, who wrote extensively on the relationship between the human Jewish Messiah and the divine figure of Christ.

You don't need a PhD or any advanced degree to know that the world we live in is NOT perfect! Ancient Judaism and early Christianity were acutely aware of that life was not perfect and witnessed first-hand life's trials, tribulations, unfairness, violence, and suffering, because they lived in the midst of the violent and aggressive Roman empire. You will learn how Judaism and Christianity create parallel visions of a perfect world at the end of time that offers hope to the downtrodden and suffering.

Yes, both Judaism and Christianity believe in angels. In fact, angels appear in the earliest book of the Hebrew Bible, the book of Genesis. You will learn the various "jobs" assigned to the angels, how angels interact with human beings, and the role of guardian angels in both Judaism and Christianity.

Once again, you will discover that both Judaism and Christianity share a common belief - the concept of resurrection - the belief that, at some point in the future, the dead will arise from their graves and be reunited or resurrected with their immortal souls to eternal life. You will learn why this concept is so important to both religions and how the concept can be traced from the Hebrew Bible in Judaism to the major texts of early Christianity.

I believe that forgiveness is the greatest and most important concept in Judaism and Christianity. Without forgiveness, our world would descend into violence and ultimate destruction. You will discover that the stereotype of Christianity being "more forgiving" than Judaism is simply not true and that both religious traditions see both divine forgiveness and human forgiveness as vital in order for our lives to be sustained.

Rather than provide you with only a few examples of forgiveness in Judaism, you are going to be reading a larger selection of texts which underscore the importance of forgiveness in Rabbinic Judaism.

I have also provided more extensive readings on the significance of forgiveness in Christianity. You will be able to understand why this concept is so central to Judaism and Christianity after reading these excerpts.