Judaism and Pauline Christianity

[bananabrain]

intention was actually to elicit feedback on what is, in fact, a term paper I am planning to submit for a rabbinics course. And, I'm happy to say that I was richly rewarded!

it looked like something of the sort. *wags finger* tut, tut. well, anyway, no harm done. a lot of people use this place as if it's a clearing-house for daft press-releases about their upcoming book/lecture/the latest message they've had from G!D or their toaster.

I'm not familiar enough with Jung's views to relate them confidently to Judaic teaching (though critics have always had dark thoughts about Jung and his view of the Jews, as you doubtless know).

well, yes, but it's more his political judgement that sucks. by the standards of antisemitism, his is fairly negligible when you consider his willingness to learn from judaism; at least imho.

As for Freud--author of "Moses and Monotheism"--I think Freud had a good "academic" understanding of Judaism, but I don't know that he really grasped its "essence" (as Leo Baeck would later do).

hmmm...i kind of agree, only i think there are a large number of criticisms that one might make of leo baeck. anyway, fair enough.

My main response to you is in relation to Judaism and cognitive-behavioral therapy; in particular, I have written on the many links between Rambam (Moshe ben Maimon, Maimonides) and the cognitive-behavioral school of psychology.

yes, i'd love to see that. tell me,was bruno bettelheim a C-Bist? i've read a little of his work. if so, does his approach touch on it?

have you been to limmud (see http://www.limmud.org )? i recommend it....or at any rate, the US version of it.

b'shalom

bananabrain

 

[Ronald Pies MD]

Thanks for the response....Re: Bettelheim, I see him more in the mode of Freud. In The Uses of Enchantment, he proposes a theory about Fairy Tales that argues they are a way of transmitting unconscious role models to children. The CBT folks are really Albert Ellis PhD, and Aaron Beck. A more popular variety of CBT is found in David Burns' book, Feeling Good. I'd be happy to forward the paper on Maimonides and CBT if you give me the right email address....Best, RP

 

[Excaliburton]

Dr Pies wrote:

Going back to Abogado's earlier query about Paul's sources, and whether there was any contemporaneous "oral tradition" of Jesus for him to draw on, or (as I have suggested) to turn away from. One Christian scholar, Prof. E. Glenn Hinson (Baptist Theological Seminary) writes in "The Early Church": " [Paul] went to Jerusalem for the first time three years after his conversion (Gal 1:18), where he spent fifteen days confering with Peter and James, Jesus' brother (Gal 1:19-20)..."

Since virtually all Christians accept the events of the books of Acts are real, it seems rather obvious there was an "oral tradition" that preached the teachings of Jesus prior to the writing of the gospels. But we must not confuse this "oral tradition" with any Talmudic Midrash/ "oral tradition" doctrine that Jesus so thoroughly denounced among the Pharisees as the "tradition of the elders".

Just because the preachings of the 12 apostles were done initially by voice rather than the written word is no reason to confuse these teachings with Pharisaic "oral tradition". After all, many ancient cultures had "oral traditions" that had nothing to do with the Midrash. The Vikings had an "oral tradition" called the Prose Edda that had nothing to do with the Talmudic Midrash "oral traditions".

PS And we should not forget that many of the early writings of the Ebionites have been lost or destroyed, so there may actually have been a written account of the life and teachings of Jesus long before the Gospels or the epistles of Paul were written.