Why Christians Are Now Redefining Their Relationship with Judaism

I’m both honored and stimulated by these three responses to my essay on Christians and Jews, responses so different from one another and yet each in different ways illuminating some of its central themes. Let me address each individually, and draw out some common threads as I go.

At the very outset, Rod Dreher—prodigious writer and quintessential Southern raconteur—makes it clear that he isn’t especially interested in addressing the fine points of abstract theological doctrine. And that’s just fine with me; in fact, there is a lot to be said for his position. The close study of theological issues can be wearying and distracting. A grand New Orleans lady friend, the godmother of both our children, forthrightly advised them against the study of theology, warning that “it will just make you mean.” Without naming names, I can say that there is plenty of evidence out there that she knew exactly what she was talking about. “Doctrine divides, and service unites,” said the ecumenical types of the past century. I think Rod Dreher might agree, but might want to substitute the word “story” for service, as we see in his wonderful tale about an African-American clerk working at the dry cleaner where his priest showed up to have his golden-threaded vestments cleaned. It is a story about the power of stories, because it wasn’t just that the clerk was impressed by the exotic God-infused garments, but she knew the passages in the Hebrew Bible that related to the organization of Temple worship.

I’ve lived in the South, and I know that Dreher’s story of the clerk is not at all atypical. One of the delights of teaching in a Southern university was that I could count on a great many of my students to have that same deep, bred-in-the-bone knowledge of biblical stories and tropes that the clerk in St. Francisville had. I never had to think twice about mentioning in class the Tower of Babel, or the binding of Isaac, or the fall of Jericho, or any other similarly iconic biblical stories.