Search Results (261)

The Bahá’í doctrine of progressive revelation, while universal in principle, has been limited, in scope and application, by what has previously been described as “Arya-Semiticentrism”—with a paradigmatic focus on Semitic religions (the “Abrahamic Faiths” of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, along with the Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths), and the so-called “Aryan” religions (Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism) to the relative exclusion of Indigenous religions. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablet to Amír Khán may offer a solution and resolution, to wit: “Undoubtedly in those regions [the Americas] the Call of God must have been raised in ancient times, but it hath been forgotten now.” This paper provides an exegesis of the Tablet to Amír Khán—an authenticated, authoritative Bahá’í text, with an authorized translation. Our basic premise is that, just as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has “added” the Buddha and Krishna to the Bahá’í list of “Manifestations of God,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has also “added” the principle of Indigenous Messengers of God to the Americas—without naming principals (i.e., the names of individual Indigenous “Wise Ones”), thereby demonstrating that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablet to Amír Khán effectively expands the scope of the Bahá’í doctrine of progressive revelation to include and engage Indigenous spiritual traditions. Full article

This article explores an interreligious educational initiative jointly developed by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) and the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), the “Sixteen Sheets on Judaism,” created to support Catholic religious education in Italian schools. Using a dialogical-hermeneutic methodology within a constructivist qualitative framework, the study applies Hermeneutic Content Analysis to thematically code and interpret the corpus. The analysis shows how the sheets seek to dismantle long-standing stereotypes and theological distortions about Judaism—often still present in educational settings—and to prevent forms of antisemitism by fostering accurate knowledge and mutual respect. Key themes include the Hebrew Scriptures, the Written and Oral Torah, and the Jewish identity of Jesus and Paul. The materials promote mutual recognition and religious literacy through dialogical engagement and the affirmation of Judaism as a living and autonomous tradition. By enabling Jewish self-representation and encouraging theological reciprocity, the sheets exemplify a model of transformative non-formal education. The article positions this case within broader debates on interreligious pedagogy and presents it as a valuable tool for inclusive curriculum design and intercultural citizenship. Full article

This study analyzes the term ioudaismos in Second Temple literature and proposes differentiation in how this term was used in Palestine and the Diaspora, with the latter being characterized by the following: (1) seize the land; (2) persecute barbarians; (3) retain the temple; (4) liberate Jerusalem; (5) reestablish Torah. In the Diaspora, ioudaismos was modified to refer to: (1) persecuting pagans; (2) concern for the Temple; and (3) observing ancestral customs devoutly. It then analyzes how Paul’s use of the term fits within these usages of other literature of the time and how the term was later used by early Christian authors of the second century in a different manner. Paul understood his role as a messianic emissary as fitting with ioudaismos by modifying the formula slightly to attract the nations to worship Israel’s god and by refocusing the ancestral customs of the Jews upon Jesus, who Paul believed to be the messiah. Full article

Among Ethiopian Jews, as among all other Jewish communities throughout history, the process of conversion to Judaism, and attitudes toward converts, were shaped by the circumstances of time and place. This article investigates conversion as practiced in the Beta Israel community. It examines the motivations for conversion and the process itself. Naturally, conversion was not uniform across all Ethiopian Jewish communities, but common fundamental features reflected a core understanding of conversion, expressed in a process that was quicker than the standard conversion practice in Israel. The testimonies presented in the article describe in detail both the process and the background to the unique traditional Ethiopian Jewish approach to conversion. This article shows that in some communities, different and more rigorous conversion ceremonies were held. A central claim of the article is that in recent generations, significant changes have occurred in the conversion process in several communities as a result of the interaction between Ethiopian Jewish communities and the State of Israel and its Orthodox rabbinic establishment. This interaction, which at times included pressures for members of the community themselves to undergo a form of conversion, introduced into some communities the terminology and processes of Orthodox conversion. Full article

When was the modern ‘self’ born? This question lies at the heart of major debates by contemporary historians and philosophers. What does rabbinic thought have to do with such questions? This essay examines a pivotal debate in modern rabbinic thought concerning the nature of intentionality in prayer. The analysis centers on R. Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk’s (1853–1918) revolutionary distinction between two forms of intention in prayer. R. Chaim argued that the conscious experience of divine presence is conditional to define prayer. By tracing the precedents and critics of this idea, this essay is an exercise in the unwritten history of rabbinic subjectivity. Full article

This essay explores the philosophical core of Susan Taubes’ thought through her diasporic ontology—a philosophy of becoming that does not derive from statics but precedes and reconfigures them. Instead of treating exile as loss or as a deviation from origin, Taubes roots her thinking in displacement, challenging fixed identities, theological certainties, and static notions of belonging. Although overshadowed by her husband Jacob and, due to the fragmentation of her work and her tragic death, largely neglected—with the important exception of the work of Elliot R. Wolfson, who in recent years has contributed enormously to her discovery in the field of Jewish philosophy—Taubes’ writings offer a radical rethinking of Jewish thought as a diasporic identity grounded in hermeneutic openness. Through a close reading of her letters and novel Divorcing, this paper reveals how her diasporic thinking—also evident in her critical engagement with Heidegger—forms the basis for rejecting theological dogma, Zionist ideologies, and the reification of meaning, while opening space for a lived understanding of Judaism. Moreover, I show how, by accepting worldliness as brokenness, her post-apocalyptic hopelessness does not collapse into nihilism but instead clears the ground for radical openness, where meaning emerges not from redemption but from the refusal to close the interpretive horizon. More than a thinker to be studied, Taubes enables a change of perspective: through her lens, concepts like Heimat or identity lose their static authority and are re-seen from the standpoint of exile. Full article

This paper critiques Hava Tirosh-Samuelson’s view of transhumanism as techno-idolatry by applying Derrida’s notion of the unconditional “to-come” and the generalized fetish. While acknowledging Tirosh-Samuelson’s stance that fetishes should not be reduced to idols, I argue that she fails to extend this understanding to transhumanism, instead depicting its fetishes as fixed idols. Drawing on Derrida’s notion of the generalized fetish, I argue that religious objects in Judaism (like the shofar or tefillin) function not as objects of worship but as material mediators of divine relation—tangible signs that carry symbolic, spiritual, and covenantal meaning while gesturing toward the divine without claiming to contain or represent it. Similarly, in transhumanism, brain-computer interfaces and AI act as fetishes that extend human capability and potential while remaining open to future reinterpretation. These fetishes, reflecting Derrida’s idea of the unconditional “to-come,” resist closure and allow for ongoing change and reinterpretation. By reducing transhumanism to mere idolatry, Tirosh-Samuelson overlooks how technological fetishes function as dynamic supplements, open to future possibilities and ongoing reinterpretation, which can be both beneficial and harmful to humanity now and in the future. Full article

This article analyzes the work of Fr. Elias Friedman, whose legacy of theological work on Jewish identity and Jewish conversion to Catholicism serves as the foundation of the Association of Hebrew Catholics, of which he is the founder. Friedman frames his work as a sensitive approach to Jewish identity and Catholic faith, but as this paper demonstrates, his work reveals a reiteration of some of the most entrenched and historically devastating tropes of Christian anti-Judaism, as well as racial antisemitism. This article presents three main arguments. First, it demonstrates that Friedman’s work evidences a theological anti-Judaism characteristic of Catholicism prior to the Second Vatican Council, which he maintained firmly even after the theological revision of Vatican II rejected such views; and furthermore, that his work also expresses an antisemitism that reflects the modern racial antisemitism adopted by the Nazi regime. Second, this article examines the positive reception of Friedman’s work, as evidenced not only in the revered position he holds within the Association for Hebrew Catholics, but also by the nihil obstat and imprimatur on both of Friedman’s monographs, that is, the official stamp of ecclesiastical approval within the Catholic Church, which declares that the work is “free of doctrinal and moral error.” It proposes that these factors evidence the uncritical reception of his work not only within the Association of Hebrew Catholics, but also on behalf of the institutional Catholic Church. Third, it raises the question of the extent to which Friedman’s identity as a Jewish convert to Catholicism is relevant in the analysis and reception of his work. It argues that his Jewish identity makes his concoction of religious anti-Judaism and racial antisemitism particularly potent, rendering anodyne even the most virulently antisemitic of his statements. Full article

The capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the extirpation of various heresies in the twelfth and thirteen centuries, the gradual expansion of Christian rule in the Iberian peninsula, and the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity there during the fourteenth century, all seemed to support a Christian triumphalism that imagined that as the End Time approached, Jews and other infidels would inevitably be absorbed into the Church. Nonetheless, an expanding medieval awareness of the many ‘Others’ beyond Christendom contributed to Christian anxieties that Jews (or Muslims) might expand their number through mass conversion, and not Christians. This paper will examine some sources of this anxiety. Full article

With good reason, Vatican II encourages the Eastern ecclesial realities to preserve and, if necessary, to rediscover their own traditions (also, even if not only, for ecumenical reasons). There are, however, certain aspects of the heritage of the Eastern Churches that require urgent revision in a spirit of consistency with the teachings of the Council. This is undoubtedly the case with regard to the anti-Jewish elements so specific to the entire Christian tradition (more or less generalised insults and judgments; substitutionary and appropriative perspectives; a purely instrumental use of the Jewish scriptures) and, in the absence of full reception of the Council, still reflected in the public prayers of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, to the detriment of that spirit of respect, fraternity, and dialogue theoretically embraced throughout the Catholic world today. In the light of Nostra aetate §4 and the subsequent developments that flowed from it, I shall try in this contribution to outline some possible criteria for reforming the offices of Holy Week, aiming to show that—at least in this particular case—it is not enough merely to refer to the OE, let alone to use it to justify a comfortable tendency towards inertia. Apart from the fact that it is this very Decree that speaks of a possible and necessary organic progress, we cannot ignore the more general spirit of renewal of the Council and its other documents (the NA, the SC, the DV, the GS). The challenge would be to engender a creative fidelity, which—while preserving the best of tradition—surpasses certain of its contingent elements. Full article

Some studies have pointed to the Jewish background of the prayer that, according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus taught his disciples. However, the formulations of LP’s words do not necessarily presuppose the conclusion of the formation of Jewish prayers and do not necessarily presuppose a unidirectional influence of Jewish prayers on the formation of LP. This prayer and its “midrash” in John 17 may have influenced the formulation and final formation of some Jewish prayers. The differences between these prayers may indicate the mutual influence that, in some cases, took place throughout the history of their formation. This reciprocity may be due to the intention to establish and define the differences between the religious groups of Judaic origin that inherited these prayers and between the communities that recited them. The crystallization of biblical themes in these prayers highlights the common heritage of these groups and a different understanding of the fulfilment of God’s word in relation to the coming of his kingdom. While this process, characterized by a conflict of interpretations, took place “within Judaism,” it also led to the parting of the ways of Judeo-Christians from the Synagogue. Full article

The article provides an analysis of the geographic origins of Karaites in four areas where Karaite congregations were commonly found after the Middle Ages, namely, Arabic Middle East (territories of modern Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt), Constantinople/Istanbul and its area, the Crimean Peninsula, and Eastern European territories belonging today to Lithuania and Ukraine. It combines available historical, onomastic, and linguistic data revealing the migrations of Karaites to and inside these regions. For the first two regions, no ambiguity exists about the roots of local Karaites. Their ancestors were Jews who adopted the Karaite version of Judaism. For the Crimean communities, various factors favor the hypothesis about the territories of the Byzantine Empire (which later became Ottoman), and more specifically, Constantinople and its area are the only major source for their development. The Karaite communities in such historical Eastern European provinces as Lithuania (properly speaking), Volhynia, and Red Ruthenia were created after migrations from Crimea to these territories. The article also discusses medieval, cultural, and potentially genetic links between Karaites and Rabbanite Jews in the areas in question. It also addresses one phonological feature, the sibilant confusion, shared by the Galician–Volhynian dialect of the Karaim language and the Lithuanian dialect of Yiddish. Full article

Many contemporaries considered the crusader conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 as a significant moment in Salvation History. This article investigates how the reception of the Roman conquest of the city (70 CE) contributed to such an understanding. The important Benedictine exegete Rupert of Deutz (c. 1070–1129) refers to the Roman conquest in 79 passages within his opus, notably in his various biblical commentaries. This case study shows how the past event provided a rationale, exegetical and providential in nature, to understand three dimensions: (a) the role of the Jews, especially that it had been necessary to deprive them of the Holy Land; (b) the current situation of and purpose of Christians in the Holy Land; and (c) the End of Time, which was expected in Jerusalem, and which Rupert anchored already significantly in his own present. His commentary on John’s Revelation even asserted that the Roman conquest had opened the sixth of seven seals (Rev. 6:12). Therefore, the Apocalypse had been ongoing since 70 CE—but only in the Holy Land, a fact that made it necessary for Christians to travel there. The article thus demonstrates that biblical commentaries are potent sources for both crusade studies and historical research in general. Full article

Interpretation of the New Testament (NT) in general and the Pauline corpus in particular still appears to be at a crossroads. Scholars continue to publish articles and monographs in binary opposition to one another. The terminology used to designate the overarching perspectives of these binary publications sharply contrasts a “traditional” perspective (Protestant in general, and Lutheran in particular) with a variously named “new” or “radical new” perspective. Most recently, beyond the imprecise “new” terminology, the non-traditional perspective is being referred to as the “post-supersessionist”, “nonsupersessionist”, or “within Judaism” perspective and is still strongly being contested. Historically speaking, these antithetical perspectives cannot both be completely correct. Arguably, then, the time has come to explore what the study of Kuhnian paradigms might reveal about this state of affairs in NT scholarship. Most important, in proffering a twofold hermeneutical way forward that is focused on better understanding the emic perspective of the texts that we interpret—to the extent humanly possible—it is hoped that we might become more keenly aware of the ethical implications of our paradigms, terminology, and exegesis for those who rely on our work for their understanding and appropriation of the Scriptures in their everyday living. Full article

For the past three decades, Black Jews in France have made their presence manifest. These believers identify as African, West Indian, or biracial, and are either converts or native Jews. They may either assert their faith from within the institutions of French Jewry, or claim their Jewishness without practicing Judaism. They have widely different backgrounds, but share a common need for identity reconstruction. This paper aims to discuss this Africana minority within the broader French Jewish community, taking into account its relation to the majority. What is the positioning of Black Jews as French citizens or residents? How do they perceive themselves when reading the Torah and through the gaze of their fellow White Jews? What is their place within the global Jewish world? Such are the questions this paper will try to address, building on fifteen years of fieldwork in France and assessing their involvement in French Jewry and its impact with regard to participation, integration, legitimacy, and conflicts. Full article