Epstein Secrets

ti-Judaism can flourish perfectly well without them, since its target is not a group of people but an idea. Nirenberg's thesis is that this idea of Judaism, which bears only a passing resemblance to Judaism as practiced and lived by Jews, has been at the very center of Western civilization since the b

been so central to Western culture is, of course, Christianity. But Nirenberg's first chapter shows that some persistent anti-Jewish tropes predate Jesus by hundreds of years. The Greek historian Hecataeus of Abdera, writing around 320 BCE, recorded an Egyptian tradition that inverts the familiar Exo

ime when Christianity was still primarily a Jewish movement. In his desire to emphasize the newness of his faith, and the rupture with Judaism that Jesus Christ represented, he cast the two religions as a series of oppositions. Where Jews read scripture according to the "letter," the literal meaning, Christ

ognize gay marriages. Orthodox Jewish synagogues would not perform or recognize a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew who did not wish to convert to Judaism. And those religious institutions that chose to perform or recognize gay marriages could do so. It would be entirely a religious decision beyond the

s our kind of people, a real down-to-earth, nice man." Eventually, I did meet her. She kissed and hugged me and repeatedly blessed me in the name of Jesus. When she kissed me, so much of her makeup came off on my face that it took me several minutes and some hard scrubbing to remove it. Several weeks l

So far so good. But then, it went on to describe why matzo had small holes: “The holes in the matzo represent the wounds on the body of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who in his body was punctured during his crucifixion.” Not in the traditional Jewish Haggadah! Tammy Faye had sent me a Christian Evangelical rip-o

s Confessions . 6 But the most dramatic example of a religious EFTA_R1_01522117 EFTA02444880 Page 133 humanism that spread simultaneously into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can be found when the lost texts of Aristotle were discovered, translated, and appropriated by scholars from these three

ily ethic — with its implicit psycho-biology - in the household codes of Ephesians and I Colossians, 4 and the gospel of John's identification of Jesus with the Platonic and Stoic idea of the pre-existent "Word." 5 A more intentional religious humanism can be found in Augustine's use of the neo-P

t in modem theories about the very nature of religion." Modem objections to anthropomorphism have taken two major forms. First, traditions within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have long opposed the worship of "idols," and regarded anthropomorphism as a dangerous assault against genuine piety and

th me. It just came and I had absolutely no control over it. I pulled over to the side of the road—I remember thinking that I was so in love with Jesus at that moment that no one else on the planet could come close. After about twenty minutes of real intensity the feeling subsided somewhat, but t

Germany as we spoke. “Conversion or death” was its most benign form, in places like Spain and Iran, many Jews faked it, staying alive and practicing Judaism secretly. Kleigfeld told me that the causes of this historical theme of persecution of Jews were complex. Among the frequently unmentioned events re

aphrasing Paul in Romans, they had been saved and were living New Life, not earned by good works as in Hebraic Law, but by faith through God’s Grace. Jesus had “paid their bills’ through His sacrifice at Gethsemane. They both tried to explain inexplicable feelings of new energy, the unseen hand of spirit

mbrance developed in his Confessions.° But the most dramatic example of a religious HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021278 humanism that spread simultaneously into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can be found when the lost texts of Aristotle were discovered, translated, and appropriated by scholars from these three rel

family ethic — with its implicit psycho-biology - in the household codes of Ephesians and I Colossians, * and the gospel of John’s identification of Jesus with the Platonic and Stoic idea of the pre-existent “Word.” A more intentional religious humanism can be found in Augustine’s use of the neo-Platoni

ept in modern theories about the very nature of religion.” Modern objections to anthropomorphism have taken two major forms. First, traditions within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have long opposed the worship of “idols,” and regarded anthropomorphism as a dangerous assault against genuine piety and pro

r with me. It just came and I had absolutely no control over it. I pulled over to the side of the road—I remember thinking that I was so in love with Jesus at that moment that no one else on the planet could come close. After about twenty minutes of real intensity the feeling subsided somewhat, but the p