Christianity and Judaism - National Versus Universal

National Versus Universal

The subject of the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, is the history of the Children of Israel, especially in terms of their relationship with God. Thus, Judaism has also been characterized as a culture or as a civilization. The founder of the Reconstructionist Movement, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan defines Judaism as an evolving religious civilization. One crucial sign of this is that one need not believe, or even do, anything to be Jewish; the historic definition of 'Jewishness' requires only that one be born of a Jewish mother, or that one convert to Judaism in accord with Jewish law. (Today, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews also include those born of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers if the children are raised as Jews.)

To many religious Jews, Jewish ethnicity is closely tied to their relationship with God, and thus has a strong theological component. This relationship is encapsulated in the notion that Jews are a chosen people. For strictly observant Jews, being "chosen" fundamentally means that it was God's wish that a group of people would exist in a covenant, and would be bound to obey a certain set of laws as a duty of their covenant, and that the Children of Israel chose to enter into this covenant with God. They view their divine purpose as being ideally a "light upon the nations" and a "holy people" (i.e., a people who live their lives fully in accordance with Divine will as an example to others), not "the one path to God". For Jews, salvation comes from God, freely given, and observance of the Law is one way of responding to God's grace.

Jews hold that other nations and peoples are not required (nor expected) to obey the Law of Moses, with the notable exception that the only laws Judaism believes are automatically binding (in order to be assured of a place in the world to come) on other nations are known as the Seven Laws of Noah. Thus, as an ethnic religion, Judaism holds that others may have their own, different, paths to God (or holiness, or "salvation"), as long as they are consistent with the Seven Laws of Noah.

While ethnicity and culture play a large part in Jewish identity, they are not the only way Jews define themselves as Jews. There are secular Jews, who do use ethnicity and culture as their defining criteria. And there are religious Jews, who do not. Rather, religious Jews define their Jewishness within the context of their Judaism. In this context, a religious convert could "feel" more Jewish than a secular ethnic Jew. While Rabbi Kaplan defines Judaism as a civilization, there are many who would not agree, citing millennia of religious tradition and observance as more than simple civilization. Most observant Jews would say that Judaism is a love story.

Judaism and Christianity share the belief that there is One, True God, who is the only one worthy to be worshipped. Judaism sees this One, True God as a singular, ineffable, undefinable being. Phrases such as "Ground of All Being", "Unfolding Reality" and "Creator and Sustainer of Life" capture only portions of who God is to Jews. While God does not change, our perception of God does, and so, Jews are open to new experiences of God's presence. Christianity, with a few exceptions, sees the One, True God as having triune personhood: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so Christians generally look to the Scriptures (both Hebrew and Christian) for an understanding of who God is.

Christianity is characterized by its claim to universality, which marks a significant break from current Jewish identity and thought, but has its roots in Hellenistic Judaism. Christians believe that Jesus represents the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and the nation of Israel, that Israel would be a blessing to all nations. Some Christians believe that the Law was "completed" by Jesus and has become irrelevant to "faith life", for details see Biblical law in Christianity. Although Christians generally believe their religion to be very inclusive (since not only Jews but all gentiles can be Christian), Jews see Christianity as highly exclusive, because some denominations view non-Christians (such as Jews and Pagans) as having an incomplete or imperfect relationship with God, and therefore excluded from grace, salvation, heaven, or eternal life. For most Christians, it is the stated or "confessed" belief in Jesus as Savior that makes God's grace available to an individual, and salvation can come no other way (Solus Christus in Protestantism, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus in Catholicism, see Dual covenant theology for a dissenting view).

This crucial difference between the two religions has other implications. For example, while in a conversion to Judaism a convert must accept basic Jewish principles of faith, and renounce all other religions, the process is more like a form of adoption, or changing national citizenship (i.e. becoming a formal member of the people, or tribe), with the convert becoming a "child of Abraham and Sarah." For many reasons, some historical and some religious, Judaism does not encourage its members to convert others and in fact would require the initiative from the person who would like to convert. In contrast, most Christian denominations actively seek converts, following the Great Commission, and conversion to Christianity is generally a declaration of faith (although some denominations view it specifically as adoption into a community of Christ, and orthodox Christian tradition views it as being a literal joining together of the members of Christ's body).

Both Christianity and Judaism have been affected by the diverse cultures of their respective members. For example, what Jews from Eastern Europe and from North Africa consider "Jewish food" has more in common with the cuisines of non-Jewish Eastern Europeans and North Africans than with each other, although for religious Jews all food-preparation must conform to the same laws of Kashrut. According to non-Orthodox Jews and critical historians, Jewish law too has been affected by surrounding cultures (for example, some scholars argue that the establishment of absolute monotheism in Judaism was a reaction against the dualism of Zoroastrianism that Jews encountered when living under Persian rule; Jews rejected polygamy during the Middle Ages, influenced by their Christian neighbors). According to Orthodox Jews too there are variations in Jewish custom from one part of the world to another. It was for this reason that Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch did not become established as the authoritative code of Jewish law until after Moshe Isserlis added his commentary, which documented variations in local custom.