I never did post my thoughts on a book I finished. "The Gifts of the Jews" is Thomas Cahill's attempt to show the many ways that the Jews have influenced the world.
I have two objections. First, he picks and chooses what to believe from the Bible with out really substantiating it. It may be basic Theology for him, but he is not writing for Bible scholars. He fails to convince that if I am not going to believe all of the Bible, why I should believe any of it. But neither is he writing for Evangelical Christians, so most people who read it will probably take him at his word here. I don't.
Secondly, he tries to force the ancients into a box of repetition and cycles. I can buy this as typical, but there still seems to be some change, very slow change. Somebody invented a sword. Somebody invented a plow. These changed warfare and farming. His point still remains, that change was slow enough for people to not notice and if there was, they viewed it as a cycle. I am still in doubt.
So what are the gifts? I will try to spell them out.
1. A change from static repetition in cycles to an unmapped changeable future (ie Abraham went)
2. A change from ritual religions to personal relationship with God.
3. An understanding that one must go through the fire of God (either refining or wrath)
4. An expression of the joy and pain of real existence (like the Song of Songs)
He writes, "Most of our best words, in fact--new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith, hope, justice--are the gifts of the Jews."
He then ends with a plea for "social justice." It doesn't really fit with the rest of book. It seems more like an addendum suggested by the publisher because they wanted a practical application.
5 comments:
"Social justice" is the battle cry of liberal Christianity in my experience. For conservatives, that is a no-brainer, and merely part of the story; but for a liberal, they're left grasping at the point of it all.
I wonder if "social justice" is too neglected by conservatives? On that matter, both Liberal and Conservative probably disagree on the meaning and the extent.
For the record, Thomas Cahill is not claiming to be a devout Christian, nor is he claiming to be a Theological expert. His focus is more on history, as The Gifts of the Jews is a part of a series on people groups that had significant impacts on the rest of the
World including the Greeks, and the Irish.
Did he mention the moral code given to us through Moses.? Ben Franklin did when he wrote Tom Jefferson saying that the moral code was necessary for this society to exsist. Also Jesus was a Jew and has had a tremendous impact on this world. Almost 2000 years later how many books have been published about Him?
He mentioned the 10 Commandments (or as he put it 10 words). Other Nations had laws and moral codes. I don't remember the point the author made about the 10 Commandments. He also thinks a lot of the Old Testament was not original, meaning that it was added later by religious leaders and other to manipulate people into giving them more power. I obviously disagree with that.
He doesn't refer to Jesus, probably because his focus dealt with ancient Israel and the change it made on all civilization.
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