In 1732, Christian Petter Löwe, a Jewish convert to Lutheranism, published his Speculum Religionis Judaicæ (Mirror of the Jewish Religion), a description of the Jewish religion and ceremonies as practised at the time. Over 50 years before Jews were permitted to settle in Sweden in 1782, the genre of Christian ethnographical writing about Jews and Jewish rituals had arrived in Sweden from Germany. In this volume, Jonathan Adams (University of Gothenburg) introduces the background to Löwe's "mirror" by looking at both the earlier history of Jews in Sweden and the phenomenon of ethnographical writing about Jews. The text of Speculum is presented in its original Swedish with a translation into English facing on the opposite pages. This edition includes notes explaining technical terms, identifying people and places, and translating Hebrew words and phrases. The volume also includes two works published in Sweden prior to Speculum: Bezelius' Die Herrlichkeit des Christenthums (The Glory of Christianity [excerpts], 1684) and Seeligmann's Jüdischer Ceremonien (On Jewish Ceremonies, 1725). The volume should be of interest to students and researchers of Jewish and Scandinavian history as well as the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

In 1732, Christian Petter Löwe, a Jewish convert to Lutheranism, published his Speculum Religionis Judaicæ (Mirror of the Jewish Religion), a description of the Jewish religion and ceremonies as practised at the time. Over 50 years before Jews were permitted to settle in Sweden in 1782, the genre of Christian ethnographical writing about Jews and Jewish rituals had arrived in Sweden from Germany. In this volume, Jonathan Adams (University of Gothenburg) introduces the background to Löwe's "mirror" by looking at both the earlier history of Jews in Sweden and the phenomenon of ethnographical writing about Jews. The text of Speculum is presented in its original Swedish with a translation into English facing on the opposite pages. This edition includes notes explaining technical terms, identifying people and places, and translating Hebrew words and phrases. The volume also includes two works published in Sweden prior to Speculum: Bezelius' Die Herrlichkeit des Christenthums (The Glory of Christianity [excerpts], 1684) and Seeligmann's Jüdischer Ceremonien (On Jewish Ceremonies, 1725). The volume should be of interest to students and researchers of Jewish and Scandinavian history as well as the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

In time for Pope Francis’s new initiatives. We now have the potential to end two thousand years of hostility—will we succeed? New in paperback! With keen wisdom and a masterful understanding of history, Rabbi James Rudin, an acclaimed authority in the field of Jewish-Christian relations, provides the context necessary for Christians and Jews to recognize the critical challenges posed by the past—and the future—of their two religions. Spanning twenty centuries of controversy, horror and promise, Rudin’s narrative examines: The sources of both conflict and commonality between the two religions The need to address and redress past wrongs The agenda required to create a shared future free of bigotry It includes proven approaches for successful interreligious dialogues, including tips on session organization, project ideas and a discussion guide to enhance Christians’ and Jews’ knowledge of each other.

In Early Jewish Messianism in the New Testament, Serge Ruzer explores cases where the New Testament proves an early witness for broader Jewish messianic beliefs, thus revealing a fuller picture of Judaism in the Second Temple period.

In time for Pope Francis's new initiatives. We now have the potential to end two thousand years of hostility—will we succeed? New in paperback! With keen wisdom and a masterful understanding of history, Rabbi James Rudin, an acclaimed authority in the field of Jewish-Christian relations, provides the context necessary for Christians and Jews to recognize the critical challenges posed by the past—and the future—of their two religions. Spanning twenty centuries of controversy, horror and promise, Rudin's narrative examines: The sources of both conflict and commonality between the two religions The need to address and redress past wrongs The agenda required to create a shared future free of bigotry It includes proven approaches for successful interreligious dialogues, including tips on session organization, project ideas and a discussion guide to enhance Christians’ and Jews’ knowledge of each other.

“Man is the most privileged of creatures; he has been made in the image of God. His privilege is still further enhanced by the fact that he has been made aware of his distinction” (Aboth iii. 14). There is in man a consciousness or feeling of a certain relation between him and a superior Being, on whose Will his own existence depends. This consciousness is the basis of religion, but is not religion itself. It is the influence which this feeling exercises over man’s actions and conduct in life that forms the essence of religion. When man begins to feel that he is responsible for his actions to a higher Being, and forms his actions in harmony with this feeling, he may be called religious. Two elements must therefore be distinguished in religion: the notion of man’s dependence on and responsibility to a superior Being, and the influence of this notion on his actions: religious belief and religious practice, or faith and duty. Religious belief or faith, in its most simple and most general form, may be said to be common almost to all mankind; and in the great variety of faiths, produced by various circumstances and experiences, this simple idea may easily be detected as the fundamental principle of all of them. The same can be said with regard to religious practice. There are certain fundamental principles of duty which are recognised and adopted by the most diverse religious sects; they form, as it were, the common stem from which a large number of branches spring forth in all directions. These branches diverge more and more the larger they grow and the more numerous they become. Judaism is one of these various religions. It has been the source of most of the religions of the civilised world, and is destined to become, in its simplest principles, the universal religion. What is Judaism? or what does Judaism teach its adherents to believe, and what does it teach them to do? The answers to these two questions form the main subject of every book on our holy religion. The answer to the first question must include our doctrine about God, His attributes, His relation to the material world, and especially to man; the mission of man, his hopes and fears. The answer to the second question must include our duties toward God, toward our fellow-men, and toward ourselves. Both answers must be based on that which we are taught in the Holy Writings, and especially in the Torah. Recourse may be had to philosophic speculation, to which, indeed, the first question peculiarly invites, but the result must be rectified by the teaching of the Torah.

The term ‘Judeo-Christian’ in reference to a tradition, heritage, ethic, civilization, faith etc. has been used in a wide variety of contexts with widely diverging meanings. Contrary to popular belief, the term was not coined in the United States in the middle of the 20th century but in 1831 in Germany by Ferdinand Christian Baur. By acknowledging and returning to this European perspective and context, the volume engages the historical, theological, philosophical and political dimensions of the term’s development. Scholars of European intellectual history will find this volume timely and relevant.