The Jewish-Christian Argument

Schoeps opens with a description of the basic characteristics of late Judaism and early Christianity, examining the presuppositions which underlie the essential conflict between Jewish and the Christian understanding of the messianic, the relation of law and faith. Having defined the Biblical and Talmudic foundations of the argument, Schoeps describes the relation and attitude of the great medieval apologists Saadyah Gaon, Judah ha-Levi, Isaac Troki, and Isaac Orobio de Castro toward Christian teaching.

In the 1916 correspondence between Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Franz Rosenzweig, Schoeps sees the dawning of a new era in the relations between the communities of faith. This book concludes with a telling and eloquent statement of the theological contribution which Judaism and Christianity can make to each other’s religious existence.

Faber and Faber, 1963.