JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 2

1. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY:NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 2 “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ” Are Christians Really Monotheists?

2. “Administrative Matters” • Dialogue from 9:00 to 9:50 • Break from 9:50 to 10:00 • Dialogue from 10:00 to 10:30 • Questions and Answers from 10:30 to 10:45

3. How to Find the Slides for Each Week • Go to fau.edu. On the bar on the left side, click on “Lifelong Learning.” • Click on “LLS Jupiter Home” • Put your cursor over “Classes” and then click on “Winter Schedule” • Click on the tab for “Courses” and scroll down to Thursdays for “O’Brien and Shapiro” • Click on “O’Brien and Shapiro” and scroll down to the link for the Slides in either PowerPoint or PDF • Click on the link for the Slides and download them

4. Starting Question • Christians make the Sign of the Cross and say “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” • How can that be consistent with Monotheism?

5. Usual Christian “Answer” • God (Trinity) is a “single unity” in “Three Persons” • Problems (and more questions): • Is God a “Being” that can have “unity”? • How to define “Person” in this context? • Who came up with this language anyway?

6. How To Proceed Here? • Historical Jesus vs. Jesus in Christian Scriptures • The “Need” for the Trinity in Christianity • Christian Scripture references to Father, Son and Holy Spirit • References in TaNaK to God as “Father” and “Spirit” • Nicene Creed (325 CE) • Unpacking the Creed: Literal or Figurative? • Maimonides’ Conception of God • God as “Mystery”

7. Historical Jesus vs. Jesus of the Gospels • Did Jesus describe himself as “Messiah” or as God during his lifetime? • Did others describe him as Messiah or God during his life? • When did the Jesus Followers’ begin to assert that Jesus was/is the Messiah and God? • Lots of books on Historical Jesus in last 100 years • Recent Bestseller: The Zealot by Reza Aslan

8. The “Need” for the Trinity (or something like it) • Jesus Followers (as early as Paul in 50 CE) affirmed that Jesus of Nazareth was “God” • Paul calls the Resurrected Jesus “Kyrios” [LORD] • Kyrios is the word used in the Septuagint (LXX) to translate YHWH • Paul is equating Jesus with the God of Israel • If Jesus is/was God, and the God of Israel is God, doesn’t that mean you have (at least) two Gods?? • Substantial debate until 325 CE (and even after)

9. Scriptural “Sources” of the Trinity Matt. 28:16-20 [After the Resurrection], Jesus came and said to [the disciples]: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. “

10. Prologue to the Gospel of John John 1.1-2: In the beginning was the Word [LOGOS], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  John 1.14: And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

11. Gospel of John (14.23-26) Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

12. God as “Father” in the TaNaK • Ex. 4.22: Israel is my firstborn son. • Deut. 1.31: In the wilderness, the LORD God carried you [Israelites], as a man carries a son…. • 2 Sam. 7.14: I will be a father to him [David] and he shall be a son to Me. • Ps. 2.7: The LORD said to me [David, or the king] “You are My son, I have fathered you this day.” • Ps. 89.27: He [David] shall say to Me, “You are my father, my God ….” • Jer. 31.9: For I am ever a Father to Israel, Ephraim is My first-born.

13. High Holy Days Prayer Avinu Malkeynu Our Father, Our King Hear our prayer Present translation: “Our parent, our sovereign”

14. “Spirit” in the TaNaK • The “Spirit of the LORD” as an “independent” force that changes people in the Bible • Jud. 3.10 (Othniel the Kenizzite); Jud. 15.14 (Samson); • 1 Sam. 10.6 (Saul); 1 Kings 18.12 (Elijah) • “Wisdom” is also portrayed as “independent” • The LORD created me at the beginning of His course … at the beginning, at the origin of the earth… before the hills, I was born (Proverbs 8.22-25) • Shekinah – grammatically feminine name for God • The indwelling of God

15. Two Early Christian “Heresies” • Arianism – Belief that the “Son” was created by the “Father” and that therefore there was a moment when the Son did not exist. The Son is therefore “subordinate” to the Father. • Adoptionism – Belief that Jesus of Nazareth was a human being who became the Son of God when God “adopted” him as His Son

16. Council of Nicea (325) • Called by the Roman Emperor, Constantine • Directed all Christian bishops to attend • Constantine wanted a unified Empire • Religious differences were a source of disunity that Constantine wanted resolved • Bishops were given a mandate to come up with a Creed – or else • Nicene Creed is a “compromise” document

17. Nicene Creed (325 CE) We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth…. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God … of one Being [Substance] with the Father.… For us and our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man…. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]….

18. The Creed: Literal or Metaphor? • God as “Father” • Son “sits at the right hand of the Father” • Creeds became literalized litmus tests • If the Creed’s words are an extended metaphor, how should Christians understand it?

19. “Persons” What do we mean by “Persons”? And by extension, “persons in the Trinity”? 4th Century: Based on Latin word “Persona” – the mask that actors wore on stage (the face presented to the world) Enlightenment to late 20th Century: An individual with consciousness; a distinct human being Late 20th Century: The center of a bundle of relationships; “persons” are inherently relational

20. A Modern Understanding of Trinity “Trinity” is a way of describing the three over-arching relationships we perceive we have with the Sacred and affirms that the Sacred is inherently relational. • Creator: We do not exist “on our own”; the Sacred is present in everything – panentheism; we have a relationship with the Sacred • Redeemer: The Sacred acts in our lives to liberate us from that which would enslave us and to give us second chances • Sanctifier: The Sacred (through many means) urges us to wholeness (salvation) and assists us in that process

21. Jesus and Moses Play Golf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHoaX9meAmI

22. Is Belief in God Essential ? • To be a Christian? • To be a Jew?

23. The PePewPPait of Jewish Americans

24. The Pew Study: A Portrait of Jewish Americans

25. Do You Need to Believe to be a Jew? • Involves a “constellation” of considerations • Orthodox definition • Reform definition • Liberal definition • “Secular” Jews • Observant/non-observant

26. Do Christians and Jews Worship the Same God? • Differences in images • Christians – God is a Trinity, and Jesus of Nazareth is God • Is it ok for Christians to claim they worship the God of Israel even if their understanding of this God is different from Jewish understandings?

27. Maimonides’ Conception of God • Rabbi, Physician, Jewish Philosopher • Born, Cordoba, Spain (1135); died, Egypt (1204) • God is a perfect unity, no end or beginning • Cannot say “God is….[any attribute].” • Any attribute would be limiting and incorrect. • Can describe God “negatively” – “God is not …..” • All the anthropomorphic terms applied to God in the Bible are allegorical or analogous – they are NOT to be understood as literal descriptions

28. The Mystery of God • All images are incomplete • Our answers are tentative and limited • All statements about God are paradoxical • God is transcendent -- God is wholly “Other” • God is immanent and is present in all reality • Overwhelming emphasis in Scripture • God is covenantal/relational • God continues to “create” all reality out of God’s love

29. Rabbi Arthur Green Mystical religion by its very nature shifts the focus of attention away from the positive/historical and inward toward the devotional/experiential. The question is not: “Do you believe that God created the world, and when?” but rather “Do you encounter a divine presence in the natural world around you?” and “What does that encounter call upon you to do?” The “events” of Israel’s sacred narrative are to be read here as myth rather than history, but their voice is

30. Rabbi Arthur Green – 2 made more powerful as they call forth deep personal engagement and commitment. The God of this religion is not the commanding Other who rules over history, but rather the still, small voice from within that calls upon us to open our hearts and turn our lives toward goodness, even in the face of terrible human evil and the inexplicable reality of nature’s indifference to our individual human plight.

31. Rabbi Arthur Green – 3 This sort of new mystical piety turns toward the natural world as a source of inspiration, seeing existence itself as an object of wonder and devotion. It finds the miraculous in daily life and tends to focus its religious energy on the building and celebration of human community.

32. What’s the “Takeaway”? • Genuine Difference between Christian and Jewish understandings of God • “Trinity” deals with “problem” of “two Gods” • “Person” is not an “independent consciousness” – a person is a “bundle of relationships” • All descriptions of God are incomplete • God as “Mystery” • Don’t play golf with Jesus

33. Walker, there is no road; the road is made by walking.