Christian preaching too easily tilts toward anti-Judaism. Given that many Christians learn about Jews and Judaism primarily through sermons, it is imperative that preachers represent Judaism with care, accuracy, and theological honesty.
This commentary on selected texts in the Revised Common Lectionary helps preachers navigate passages that are easily read in an anti-Jewish manner--not by providing scripts, but by modeling the kind of careful, cross-disciplinary conversation that responsible preaching demands. Covering texts from Years A, B, and C and from all seasons of the church year, it brings three distinct theological voices into genuine dialogue: Ellen Charry, reading the texts afresh from her position as a Christian Jew equally critical of both traditions; Bruce Chilton, situating each passage within its historical and Jewish context and drawing on decades of comparative scholarship; and Geoffrey Ready, offering homiletical guidance grounded in Orthodox Christian theology and the "within Judaism" scholarship of recent decades.
The book's animating conviction is that anti-Judaism in Christian preaching is not a minor correctable error but a theological problem at the heart of the tradition--one with a long history running from the New Testament canon itself through the formation of the lectionary. At the same time, the past six decades of Jewish-Christian dialogue, biblical scholarship, and liturgical reform have opened new possibilities. This commentary puts those possibilities to work at the place where they are most needed and least addressed: the Sunday pulpit.
