Jewish Theology: Systematically and Historically Considered, by Kaufmann Kohler (Macmillan, 1918). My rating: 5 of 5.
If you are a Christian, you pray the Psalms, read the prophets and confess the God of Abraham. Yet you may know very little about how Jews themselves have understood that faith. Kohler’s book is a century old, and it is still one of the clearest single-volume answers I have found.
What the book covers
Kohler was a Reform rabbi and president of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He wrote this book to give a full, orderly account of Jewish belief by a Jewish scholar, and to correct the common view that Judaism is a religion of law alone. It moves in three parts: God, humanity, and Israel and the kingdom of God. Along the way he covers revelation and covenant, God’s unity and attributes, creation and providence, sin and repentance, prayer, immortality, Israel’s mission, the messianic hope and the synagogue.
The book is long and dense, and it rewards slow reading. It is in the public domain and easy to find.
What stayed with me
Repentance as return. Kohler writes that “The brightest gem among the teachings of Judaism is its doctrine of repentance,” which Hebrew calls teshuvah, a turning back. The Greek word in the Gospels, metanoia, carries the same sense. It gives the Ash Wednesday invitation to a holy Lent a deeper sense.
Life and worship as one. Kohler describes Judaism as a faith that stresses “a hallowed life, not a hollow creed.” He refuses to wall worship off from daily life. Neither does Jesus’s summary of the Law.
The three themes of the shofar. In the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, the shofar proclaims God as King, as the Judge who remembers, and as the Lord of history who will gather the nations by the trumpet. Christians will hear Advent in those themes: Christ the King, the judgment, and the last trumpet.
Prayer people can understand. Kohler notes the rabbis’ reading that the Shema should be said in words the people can hear and understand. Anglicans will recognize the same conviction in Article XXIV of the Articles of Religion.
Body and soul as one person. Kohler stresses the unity of the human person. That is good ground for sacramental teaching. Bodies matter, which is why God meets us in water, bread, wine and oil. He also reports that the rabbis came to see love as the innermost part of God’s being, and readers of 1 John 4 will find common ground there.
A few notes
Kohler wrote from Classical Reform Judaism, which played down ritual and mysticism, so his account is one strand of Jewish thought, not the whole. He is also sharp at points in his critique of the church and the creeds. I read those passages charitably, and I take seriously his larger objection to the idea that Judaism has been replaced. Some of his comparative claims about other ancient religions are dated and can be skipped.
Who should read it
Christians who want to understand the faith of Jesus’s own people from the inside, clergy preparing for interfaith work, and anyone interested in the history of religious thought. Read it slowly, one part at a time.
Quotes are short excerpts credited to the author. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The price you pay does not change. I read this book on my own, and no one asked me or paid me to review it. My faith writing reflects my own views, not those of my parish or diocese. See Disclosures.