Jacob Neusner. Telling Tales: Making Sense of Christian and Judaic Nonsense: The Urgency and Basis for Judeo-Christian Dialogue. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1993. vi + 170 pages.

Reviewed by David R. Larson

Although it was published almost a decade ago and is no longer in print, this volume was new to me. I recently purchased my copy from a store that sells used books on the Internet. Because it assesses the relationships between Jews and Christians in disturbingly helpful ways, I recommend that others purchase the book, too.

Telling Tales is disturbing because it claims that over the centuries Jews and Christians have not engaged in genuine dialogue. It is helpful because it substantiates this claim in detail, outlines the basic requirements of true dialogue, proposes how it might now begin, and offers instructive samples of such exchanges. The overall impact is like a thorough medical examination and treatment plan: uncomfortable at points, but beneficial.

According to Neusner, a prolific and respected rabbi and professor with a Web site of his own, genuine dialogue takes place only when "(1) each party proposes to take seriously the position of the other, (2) each party concedes the integrity of the other, and (3) each party accepts responsibility for the outcome of the discussion: that is, remains open to the possibility of conceding the legitimacy of the other’s viewpoint." In addition, the parties must possess common agendas, resources, patterns of reasoning, and standards for making judgments.

All parties must also be able and willing to address each other with respect and dignity. They must enjoy roughly equal standing and power; otherwise, one or the other interacts so defensively that it risks making no offensive moves, in both primary meanings of this expression.

These requirements have rarely been met in the exchanges between Jews and Christians, Neusner holds; so infrequently that we might as well say "never."

Neusner writes that dialogue between religious movements should begin not by examining ideas or comparing practices, but by cultivating the ability to express in one’s own terms what others affirm and through this process to feel, at least to some extent, what they feel. This step is the initial goal of true dialogue: to identify with the feelings of others, first in sympathy and then with empathy.

Neusner holds that the best way to experience at least some of the feelings of others is to take full advantage of the stories in one’s own religious community that enable one to understand what others believe and practice. By sharing stories, Jews and Christians can begin to understand what they ordinarily find inexplicable.

Neusner provides two major clusters of stories, plus several minor ones, as samples of resources for fruitful dialogue. One of these makes it easier for Jewish people to understand in their own terms what Christians mean when they say that Jesus is the incarnation of God and to feel what Christians feel because of this conviction. The other makes it more possible for Christians to understand in their own ways what Jews have in mind when they say that Israel is God’s chosen people and to feel what Jews feel because of this belief.

Neusner concedes that Judaism’s "fusion of the ethnic, the religious, the cultural and the political presents woeful confusion to Christians" (140). Without yielding the point that "for nearly all Jews, there is no sorting out the religious, ethnic and cultural categories—not to mention, after all, the genealogical as well" (140), he offers at least two clarifications. One of these is that "if you convert to Judaism, you automatically become a Jew, a member of the ethnic group," so much so that "children of converts to Judaism are fully ’Israel’" (151).

Neusner’s other clarification is that "I make no claim that for the sake of dialogue, the Christian partner must then approve every decision of the most current Israeli government" (158). He insists, however, that "Christians who hold Israel, the state, to that higher, and unattainable standard or condemn the state of Israel in vile and hateful language—looking for every chance to compare Israeli policy to German Nationalist Socialist policy or to invoke ’the Holocaust’ in criticizing Israeli actions—have no place in dialogue with self-respecting Jews. These people are little more than anti-Semites" (158).

I find Neusner’s recommendations very helpful for all dialogue, not only Jewish and Christian. Nevertheless, I am also reminded of the psychiatric adage that "nothing changes when nothing changes." Our ultimate goal must be more than dialogue; it must be change. Things are not likely to improve until, in the best senses of the relevant terms, and without erasing the distinctive identity, life, and value of each, Christianity as we now know it becomes more Jewish and Judaism as we now know it becomes more Christian.

To use Neusner’s figure of speech, if we Jews and Christians continue circling and striking at each other like the mongoose and the cobra, things are not likely to improve, even if we understand each other more fully and feel what the other feels. "Telling Tales" is a necessary first step. It is up to us to take it and to make sure that it is not the last.

It is also my view as a Gentile Christian that those of us who are Jews and Christians may need to review and revise, where appropriate, some of our thoughts, feelings, and actions as they pertain to how God interacts with all the people of the world, not merely our own communities of faith.

As Neusner writes, the full exploration of such possibilities must be postponed until we have shared the stores that will enable us to understand each other in our own terms of reference so as to feel what others feel. Meanwhile, we can thank him for personifying the way forward wherever we experience profound differences. Let’s begin by "telling tales"! But let’s not stop there!

© 2002 Spectrum/AAF