Disintegrating the Hyphen: The “Judeo-Christian Tradition” and the Christian Colonization of Judaism

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ReOrient

Volume 5, Issue 1

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Disintegrating the Hyphen: The “Judeo-Christian Tradition” and the Christian Colonization of Judaism

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Author(s): Robert O. Smith

Publication date (Print): 1 October 2019

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Judeo-Christian, Settler Coloniality, Supersessionism, Capitalism, Cold War

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Abstract

Jewish dissent to the concept of a “Judeo-Christian Tradition” reveals it to be a political assemblage offering conditional, incomplete access to structures of white, western Christian power. While the concept offers pragmatic benefits to Jews, it does so at the expense of Jewish distinction from Christian beliefs and purposes and to the exclusion of Islam and Muslims. The supersessionist foundations of the “Judeo-Christian” concept inspire and perpetuate Christian settler-colonial domination of Jews and Judaism. Destabilizing this concept promotes new levels of liberative dialogical engagement, moving us beyond present systems of theological, political, and economic injustice.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50009694

Journal ID (jcode): reorient

Title: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2055-5601

ISSN: 2055-561X

Publication date (Print): 1 October 2019

Volume: 5

Issue: 1 ( doiID: 10.13169/reorient.5.issue-1 )

Pages: 73-91

Affiliations

Briarwood Leadership Center (Argyle, Texas)

Article

Publisher ID: reorient.5.1.0073

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.5.1.0073

SO-VID: d94d2ac7-eb22-4e00-9f39-af6967c073c2

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

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lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Literary studies,Religious studies & Theology,Social & Behavioral Sciences,History,Philosophy

Keywords: Supersessionism,Judeo-Christian,Cold War,Settler Coloniality,Capitalism

References

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Ellis, M. (1987) Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll: Orbis.
Ellis, M. (1990) End This Dialogue! The Tablet: The International Catholic Weekly. 244 (June 30), 810.
Ellis, M. (1991) Jewish Progressives and the Ecumenical Dialogue. University of Dayton Review 21 (2), 54.
Ellis, M. (1994) Ending Auschwitz and 1492: Reflections on the Future of Jewish and Christian Life with an Afterword: Next Year in Jerusalem. European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe. 27 (1), 36–51.
Ellis, M. (1997) Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time. Minneapolis: Fortress.
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Gordis, R. (1953) The Nature of Man in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Judaism: A Quarterly Journal 2 (2): 101–109.
Grossman, M. (1989) The Violence of the Hyphen in Judeo-Christian. Social Text 22, 115–22.
Harvey, W. Z. (2016) The Judeo-Christian Tradition's Five Others. In Nathan, E. and Topolski, A. (eds.). Is There a Judeo-Christian Tradition? A European Perspective. Berlin: de Gruyter, 211–24.
Heller, B. (1946) The “Judeo-Christian Tradition”. Jewish Frontier. 13, 54–60.
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Heller, B. (1953) The Judeo-Christian Concept: Aid or Deterrent to Goodwill? Judaism: A Quarterly Journal. 2 (2), 133–9.
van den Hemel, E. (2014) (Pro)claiming Tradition: The ‘Judeo-Christian’ Roots of Dutch Society and the Rise of Conservative Nationalism. In Braidotti R., et al (eds.), Transformations of Religion and the Public Sphere. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Heschel, S. (2006) Christ's Passion: Homoeroticism and the Origins of Christianity. In Beal, T. and Linafelt, T. (eds.) Mel Gibson's Bible: Religion, Popular Culture, and The Passion of the Christ. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hochberg, G. Z. (2016) Remembering Semitism; or, On the Prospect of Re-membering the Semites. ReOrient. 1 (2), 192–223.
Kagan, H. E. (1953) The “Judeo-Christian Heritage”: A Psychological Revaluation and a New Approach. Yearbook of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. New York: CCAR.
Kēhaulani Kauanui, J. (2016) “A Structure, Not an Event”: Settler Colonialism and Enduring Indigeneity. Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association 5 (1). Available at: http://csalateral.org/issue/5-1/forum-alt-humanities-settler-colonialism-enduring-indigeneity-kauanui (accessed April 29, 2018).
Lodahl, M. (1990) Jews and Christians in a Conflict of Interpretations: On Questioning the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”. Christian Scholar's Review. 19 (4), 332–344.
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Mart, M. (2004) The “Christianization” of Israel and Jews in 1950s America. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 14 (1), 109–47.
Marty, M. E. (1986) A Judeo-Christian Looks at the Judeo-Christian Tradition. The Christian Century. 103 (29), 858–60.
Moore, D. D. (1998) Jewish GIs and the Creation of the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 8 (1), 31–53.
New York Times (1976). Rabbi Bernard Heller, 77, Dies; A Scholar, Author and Teacher. New York Times. May 7, 25.
Novak, M. (2011). A Western Blueprint: An Atheist Defends the Judeo-Christian Ethic. The Weekly Standard. 17(6), 37–38.
Prager, D. (2004). What Does “Judeo-Christian” Mean? Jewish World Review. March 30. Available at: www.jewishworldreview.com/0304/prager_2004_03_30_04.php3 (accessed April 29, 2018).
Quijano, A. (2000) Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South. 1 (3), 533–80.
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Svirsky, M. (2016) Resistance is a Structure not an Event. Settler Colonial Studies. 7 (1), 19–39.
Tillich, P. (1952) Is There a Judeo-Christian Tradition? Judaism: A Quarterly Journal. 1 (2), 106–9.
Veracini, L. (2013) “Settler Colonialism”: Career of a Concept. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 41 (2), 313–33.
Wolfe, P. (2006) Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native. Journal of Genocide Research. 8 (4), 387–409.
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Blakely, J. (2017) Why Bannon's Pessimism Won't Protect the Judeo-Christian Tradition. America: The Jesuit Review. March 1. Available at: www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/03/01/why-bannons-pessimismwont-protect-judeo-christian-tradition (accessed April 29, 2018).

[2] Bloom, H. (1980) A Map of Misreading. New York: Oxford University Press.

[3] Bloom, H. (1997) The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Second ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

[4] Blume, H. (2005) Divine (Mis)Readings: Q&A with Harold Bloom. The Boston Globe. November 13. Available at: http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/11/13/divine_misreadings/?page=1 (accessed April 29, 2018).

[5] Buber, M. (1955a) The Life of Dialogue. Translated by Friedman, M. S. London: Routledge.

[6] Buber, M. (1955b) Genuine Conversation and the Possibilities of Peace. Translated by Friedman, M.S. CrossCurrents. 5 (4), 292–6.

[7] Cohen, A. A. (1970) The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition and Other Dissenting Essays. New York: Harper & Row.

[8] Ellis, M. (1987) Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll: Orbis.

[9] Ellis, M. (1990) End This Dialogue! The Tablet: The International Catholic Weekly. 244 (June 30), 810.

[10] Ellis, M. (1991) Jewish Progressives and the Ecumenical Dialogue. University of Dayton Review 21 (2), 54.

[11] Ellis, M. (1994) Ending Auschwitz and 1492: Reflections on the Future of Jewish and Christian Life with an Afterword: Next Year in Jerusalem. European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe. 27 (1), 36–51.

[12] Ellis, M. (1997) Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time. Minneapolis: Fortress.

[13] Ellis, M. (2014) Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel and the Struggle for Peace and Justice. In Masalha, N. and Isherwood, L. (eds.) Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives. Cambridge: Lutterworth.

[14] Feder, J. L. (2016) This Is How Steve Bannon Sees the Entire World. Buzzfeed News. November 15. Available at: www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world?utm_term=.twqpnObAA#.ye6k4E6nn (accessed April 29, 2018).

[15] Feldman, S. M. (1998) Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State. New York: New York University Press.

[16] Goldman, S. (2011) What Do We Mean by “Judeo-Christian”? Available at: http://religiondispatches.org/what-do-we-mean-by-judeo-christian (accessed April 29, 2018).

[17] Gordis, R. (1953) The Nature of Man in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Judaism: A Quarterly Journal 2 (2): 101–109.

[18] Grossman, M. (1989) The Violence of the Hyphen in Judeo-Christian. Social Text 22, 115–22.

[19] Harvey, W. Z. (2016) The Judeo-Christian Tradition's Five Others. In Nathan, E. and Topolski, A. (eds.). Is There a Judeo-Christian Tradition? A European Perspective. Berlin: de Gruyter, 211–24.

[20] Heller, B. (1946) The “Judeo-Christian Tradition”. Jewish Frontier. 13, 54–60.

[21] Heller, B. (1952) About the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Some Comments on Paul Tillich's Article. Judaism: A Quarterly Journal. 1 (3), 257–61.

[22] Heller, B. (1953) The Judeo-Christian Concept: Aid or Deterrent to Goodwill? Judaism: A Quarterly Journal. 2 (2), 133–9.

[23] van den Hemel, E. (2014) (Pro)claiming Tradition: The ‘Judeo-Christian’ Roots of Dutch Society and the Rise of Conservative Nationalism. In Braidotti R., et al (eds.), Transformations of Religion and the Public Sphere. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

[24] Henry, P. (1981) And I Don't Care What It Is: The Tradition-History of a Civil Religion Proof-Text. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 49 (1), 35–49.

[25] Herzl, T. (1941) Old–New Land [Altneuland, 1902]. Translated from the German by Levensohn, L. New York: M. Wiener.

[26] Herzl, T. (1988) The Jewish State. Translated from the German by d'Avigdor, S. New York: Dover.

[27] Heschel, S. (1992) Abraham Geiger on the Origins of Christianity: The Political Strategies of Wissenschaft Des Judentums in an Era of Acculturation. In Mor, M. (ed.). Jewish Assimilation, Acculturation, and Accommodation: Past Traditions, Current Issues, and Future Prospects. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

[28] Heschel, S. (1998) Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[29] Heschel, S. (1999) Revolt of the Colonized: Abraham Geiger's Wissenschaft des Judentums as a Challenge to Christian Hegemony in the Academy. New German Critique. 77 (Special Issue), 61–85.

[30] Heschel, S. (2006) Christ's Passion: Homoeroticism and the Origins of Christianity. In Beal, T. and Linafelt, T. (eds.) Mel Gibson's Bible: Religion, Popular Culture, and The Passion of the Christ. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[31] Hochberg, G. Z. (2016) Remembering Semitism; or, On the Prospect of Re-membering the Semites. ReOrient. 1 (2), 192–223.

[32] Kagan, H. E. (1953) The “Judeo-Christian Heritage”: A Psychological Revaluation and a New Approach. Yearbook of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. New York: CCAR.

[33] Kēhaulani Kauanui, J. (2016) “A Structure, Not an Event”: Settler Colonialism and Enduring Indigeneity. Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association 5 (1). Available at: http://csalateral.org/issue/5-1/forum-alt-humanities-settler-colonialism-enduring-indigeneity-kauanui (accessed April 29, 2018).

[34] Lodahl, M. (1990) Jews and Christians in a Conflict of Interpretations: On Questioning the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”. Christian Scholar's Review. 19 (4), 332–344.

[35] Magid, S. (2017) Where is the “Jew” in the Judeo-Christian myth? Thoughts on Jewish and American. The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. March 13. Available at: https://tif.ssrc.org/category/exchanges/american-exceptionalism (accessed April 29, 2018).

[36] Mart, M. (2004) The “Christianization” of Israel and Jews in 1950s America. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 14 (1), 109–47.

[37] Marty, M. E. (1986) A Judeo-Christian Looks at the Judeo-Christian Tradition. The Christian Century. 103 (29), 858–60.

[38] Moore, D. D. (1998) Jewish GIs and the Creation of the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 8 (1), 31–53.

[39] New York Times (1976). Rabbi Bernard Heller, 77, Dies; A Scholar, Author and Teacher. New York Times. May 7, 25.

[40] Novak, M. (2011). A Western Blueprint: An Atheist Defends the Judeo-Christian Ethic. The Weekly Standard. 17(6), 37–38.

[41] Prager, D. (2004). What Does “Judeo-Christian” Mean? Jewish World Review. March 30. Available at: www.jewishworldreview.com/0304/prager_2004_03_30_04.php3 (accessed April 29, 2018).

[42] Quijano, A. (2000) Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South. 1 (3), 533–80.

[43] Quijano, A. (2007) Coloniality and Modernity / Rationality. Cultural Studies 21 (2/3), 168–78.

[44] Rosennov, J. (2005) So Who Is King of the Jews? Review of Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine, by Harold Bloom. The New York Times. November 27. Available at: www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/books/review/so-who-is-king-of-the-jews.html (accessed April 29, 2018).

[45] Sacks, J. (2002) The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. New York: Continuum.

[46] Sacks, J. (2011) Recovering Judeo-Christian Ethic Precedes European Recovery. ABC Religion and Ethics. December 14. Available at: www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/12/14/3390711.htm (accessed April 29, 2018).

[47] Schmitt, C. (2006) Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Translated from the German by Schwab, G. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[48] Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. (2015) Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[49] Silk, M. (1984) Notes on the Judeo-Christian Tradition in America. American Quarterly. 36 (1), 65–85.

[50] Silk, M. (2011) What's Wrong with the Judeo-Christian Tradition? Available at: www.beliefnet.com/columnists/religionandpubliclife/2011/01/what-wrong-with-the-judeo-christian-tradition.html (accessed April 29, 2018).

[51] Silk, M. (2017) Steve Bannon's Judeo-Christianity. Religion News Service. August 28. Available at: https://religionnews.com/2017/08/28/steve-bannons-judeo-christianity (accessed April 29, 2018).

[52] Svirsky, M. (2016) Resistance is a Structure not an Event. Settler Colonial Studies. 7 (1), 19–39.

[53] Tillich, P. (1952) Is There a Judeo-Christian Tradition? Judaism: A Quarterly Journal. 1 (2), 106–9.

[54] Veracini, L. (2013) “Settler Colonialism”: Career of a Concept. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 41 (2), 313–33.

[55] Wolfe, P. (2006) Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native. Journal of Genocide Research. 8 (4), 387–409.

[56] Zubovich, G. (2018) The Strange, Short Career of Judeo-Christianity. Available at: https://aeon.co/ideas/the-strange-short-career-of-judeo-christianity (accessed April 29, 2018).