c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) It’s not often a book becomes an instant classic when it first appears in print. But that’s what happened when the prestigious Cambridge University Press of Great Britain recently published “A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations.”

A dictionary is a classic? Aren’t all dictionaries dull reading? Not this one.

The 507-page Cambridge Dictionary provides a highly informative collection of more than 700 tightly written philosophical, theological, sociological, political, historical and cultural topics that focus with laserlike intensity on the complex 2,000-year-old Jewish-Christian encounter.

There are no arcane rambling articles in the Dictionary, and because of superb editing, there is a seamless transition from one entry to the next. In the interests of full disclosure, I was privileged to write six of the Dictionary’s articles.

There are, of course, hundreds of books currently available about Jews and Judaism and Christians and Christianity. But the new Dictionary breaks down the traditional walls separating the two religions, and presents a comprehensive look at the relationship between Judaism and Christianity _ a relationship that has decisively shaped the world we live in today.

Some 111 scholars from 13 countries _ including the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, Ireland and Russia _ contributed to the Dictionary. The contributors represent a wide range of religious identities: Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Christian, and Jewish.

The Dictionary contains an excellent 46-page bibliography that by itself is worth the price of the book, an index of names, and seven easy-to-read maps beginning with the biblical land of Israel and the Roman Empire and ending with the British Empire and the modern State of Israel.

The alphabetically listed entries start with a description of “Aaron,” the brother of Moses and Miriam, and the founder of the ancient Israelite priesthood. The Dictionary concludes with Emile Zola, the celebrated French writer whose 1898 letter, “J’accuse!” addressed to the French president exposed the anti-Semitism that permeated the infamous Dreyfus Affair. Zola’s brilliant letter helped break open the case of Alfred Dreyfus, an innocent French Jewish artillery officer falsely accused of treason.

In their preface, editors Edward Kessler and Neil Wenborn point out that the Dictionary contains “the sort of entries the reader might expect … baptism, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Messiah, Holocaust, but (there are) also entries on such topics as architecture, abortion, the Ottoman Empire, Russian literature, music.”

The Dictionary’s unique feature is that contributors were compelled to leave their personal religious viewpoints and commitments outside the covers of the book. Kessler and Wenborn demanded that the various contributors present carefully balanced scholarship and not a stream of personal spiritual beliefs and opinions. The editors required that the Dictionary avoid “offering either a Jewish approach to the (interreligious) relationship or a Christian one … its principal focus is on dialogue between the two religions.”

Not surprisingly, it took several years to complete such an extensive Dictionary, and, as I can personally attest, Kessler and Wenborn insisted on many re-writes from contributors. But the long, arduous effort has paid rich dividends.

“A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations” is a required reference work for every rabbi, priest and minister. In addition, the volume is indispensable for faculty members and students of religion and history on the university campus and in seminaries. Every synagogue and church library should purchase a copy because the Dictionary is a powerful tool in educating youngsters and adult lay people.

Do you want a clear understanding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus of Nazareth, Judas Iscariot, Thomas Aquinas, Moses Maimonides, Anne Frank, Sigmund Freud, John Calvin, or Pope John Paul II? How about some solid information and not polemics about such topics as free will, prophecy, sin, and conversion?

In a world torn by wars fueled by religious extremism, the Dictionary is a welcome and timely contribution to the vital task of building human bridges of solidarity and mutual respect. Buy it. But, most of all, read it.

KRE/JL END RUDIN

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious

adviser, is the author of “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)