Adult Education – Epiphany

Whether or not Judaism and Christianity can be considered sibling religions, it is clear that Christianity emerged out of first-century Jewish soil and kept the Jewish Bible as part of its sacred library, now understood as the Old Testament. These five sessions will focus on two issues that are of both ancient and contemporary concern: Anti-Semitism and the conflicted land of Israel, sometimes called the Holy Land. While Christians come, in general terms, to the study of Judaism as outsiders, in no sense can Christians and Christianity claim to be mere bystanders to these two issues. Christianity is deeply entangled with Jews and Judaism on the issues of Anti-Semitism and the Holy Land. While we may have thought that the Holocaust would have shocked the modern world out of the stupor of Anti-Semitism, it has continued to rear its ugly head with a vengeance. How should Christianity think about its own complicity in this sad state of affairs? With the end of WWII and the birth of the modern state of Israel, a new chapter of the land of Israel began. It is a complicated story and one that involves Christians and the United States at every turn. How might Christians, American Christians in particular, think about the conflicts in this part of the world?