Leo Baeck’s Study On Judaism And Christianity Relation

In19th century, German Jews’problem tended to become increasingly fierce:in the former part, German Jews did not get emancipation which they should have deserved as in the other peoples, instead, they got humiliation from all fields owing to German Chaos state that did not fulfill a unity. Therefore German Jews had been always struggling for their emancipation. In the latter part, because of the constant irritating of new anti-Semitism, German Jews’problem gradually turned to promote Jewish Zionism movement and Jewish socialism. This caused an unprecedented upsurging of anti-Semitism in most German people whose dominating culture was Christianity. These intensified the long-standing contradictory between Judaism and Christianity. Thus Jews’problem became a fuse of the debate between them in German religious circle. That was mainly represented by a confronting debate about their own justifiability between liberal theology and liberal Jewish theology:under the threat of Judaism and Jews’problem, Christianity tried to emphasize his own superior place and criticize Judaism for its own justifiability and rational thought system. That reflected an extreme mind of most Germans who endeavored to cut all relations with Jews and Judaism, and then clear Jews out of Germany completely; With this, Judaism faced a series of problems, such as whether the whole Jewish people was just as what they had been described as an inferior people, whether Judaism should continue to be under the control of Christianity, and whether Jews should accept the doom of being cleared, etc., so she would accordingly justify for her reasonable existence and escape from the absolute control of Christianity, in order to justify the existence value and significance of Judaism and Jews. The debate between these two was outstandingly manifested by Adolf von Harnack and Leo Baeck.Harnack clearly defined the Christian nature as a liberal faith from the experience and emotion viewpoints, to show the justifiability of Christianity’s absolute control and superior place. He tried to cut all relations with Judaism, denied the basic doctrine and idea of Judaism, in order to depreciate Judaism and Jews’ existence value and significance, and clear the whole inferior Jewish people out of Germany. Harnack made use of four titles respectively,"Christianity as the Only Liberal Faith","Defaming Pharisees","The Facticity of Four Gospels as a Divine Revelation" and "The Origin of Jesus’ Thoughts" to criticize Judaism, from such aspects as Christian origin, Pharisees, gospels and source of Jesus’ thoughts, etc.. This stood for a hostile attitude of liberal theology towards Judaism and Jews’ problem, which would cause a positive fight back from liberal Jewish theology. That is why the typical representative Leo Baeck made a refutation rather sternly, with a determined mind to maintain the sacred place of Jewish faith as well as Jews’ dignity, and justify their existence value and significance.Leo Baeck based his refutation on the historic origin relation between Christianity and Judaism. He made a strong defence from ethics and practice viewpoints, with "Judaism as the Origin of a Divine Faith","Pharisees’ Important Role in Jewish History","The Unreliability of Four Gospels as a Divine Revelation", and "Jesus Thoughts’ Jewish Origin". In this course, he justified this historic origin relation through the Jewish origin of Paul’s theology, gospels’ tradition and Jesus’ thoughts, so as to refute Harnack’s argumentation system from the religious origin, defined Jewish basic doctrine and idea, in order to overturn Harnack’s extremely parochial understanding for raising Christianity and reducing Judaism. That was a big fight for liberal theology from liberal Jewish theology, thus justifying Judaism and Jews’ existent rationality. Meanwhile, he made a preliminary modernized interpretation for the ethical monotheic nature and constant dynamic development character of Judaism, through which Judaism manifested itself as a constant updating religious form keeping up with the development of modern society. That made a strong refutation for Harnack’s misunderstanding of Judaism. However Baeck refuted Harnack’s criticism, that he based this refutation on their historic origin relation served as a steady basis for his interpretation of their relationship.With that, Baeck made a comparative analysis into the difference between the two religious forms, with religious tolerance as the guidance, and make a positive outlook for a sound relation between Judaism and Christianity. He compared their guiding ideas and piety expression type for a concrete analysis into their difference. Within this course, Baeck criticized some aspects Christianity had deviated from Judaism; what’s more important, Baeck acknowledged the independence of Christianity. As far as he is concerned, these two mother-child religions would tend to an understanding, dialogue and cooperation relationship, which reflects Baeck’s tolerant mind. It is also Baeck’ justification for Jewish ethical monotheic nature, constant dynamic development feature, and its dialectical thought system, to show that Judaism has an irreplaceable historical place for her unique traditional culture and sacred responsibility of the selected, and her ethical monotheic nature and dynamic feature as well as the tension system explain for her infinite potential and everlasting energy, thus justifying the existence rationality and space of Judaism and Jews. It is also an expression of Baeck’s political appeal, namely, Judaism, not to be defeated by any difficulty or doom as the second World War, would stand firmly in the world with her selected subject place and ethical nature in a faithful life all along to prove the existence value and significance of Judaism and Jews.The basic idea this dissertation says lies in that, the aim which Baeck took part in the debate with Harnack is not to depreciate or criticize Christianity, but to eliminate the past misunderstanding between Judaism and Christianity, overcome their contradiction and conflict, and to avoid new antinomy. This offers a sound explanation for Baeck’s refutation and interpretation of the relationship between these two religious forms. For this, Baeck stands out distinctively among his contemporaries, which explains his respect with other different religions, and his positive outlook as a model. During this course, his modernized interpretation of Judaism’s nature and feature reflects a turn of focus from rationalism to existentialism, and his emphasis of dialectical components characterized by Mistery and Commandment showed his dialectical thought system, which explains Judaism develope with everlasting power and infinite potential parallel with the modern society within a tension movement. That serves as Baeck’s inheriting and maintaining of Jewish traditional culture, also a sound answer for the question of whether Judaism could meet with the requirements of German dominate culture and modern society, and more as a firm justification for the existence value and significance of Jewish people who had undergone a severe test of the second World War.The whole framework could be divided into three parts. Part one is made up of the first two chapters, which introduces the historical environment invoking Baeck’s study on this relationship, namely, the main effect of German Jews’problem focused on Jews’ emancipation on German religious circle. That is represented by the extreme opposing reaction of liberal theology to Jews’ problem caused a debate with liberal Jewish theology, which helped to bring about a debate at the turn of the century. On the side of Christianity, the typical representative is that Harnack criticized Judaism from such four aspects as the origin of Christianity, Pharisees, gospels and Jesus.Part two is composed of the main body of Baeck’s interpretation of that relationship, Chapter Three and Four. This part mainly analyzes how Baeck made a strong defence for Harnack’s criticism with the historic origin between Judaism and Christianity to overturn the Harnack’s whole argument framework; then under the guidance of religious tolerance idea, Baeck compared their difference with the principle of seeking common ground while reserving differences, and finally looked into the future with a positive outlook for a cooperation and friendly relationship.Part three, comprising Chapter Five and conclusion, is an analysis and comment on Baeck’s thought about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. It would combine some comments from both sides, especially the positive one as the main reference, compare the strong and weak points in this debate from Harnack and Baeck, and then make the conclusion as follows:Although Baeck’s refutation derived from a differenct viewpoint, just as the above mentioned about Baeck’s aim, which determined Baeck’s different viewpoint from Harnack, and a more result in refutation and justification. Although there is weakness in Baeck’s refutation and justification, his ways of debating would finally make up for these weak points anyway, which accordingly fought back for the challenge from liberal theology. Moreover, Baeck’s acknowledgment for Christianity’s independence manifested more of a tolerant mind of Jewish scholars as well as their practice of this idea. What’s more important, the rational thinking of religion relations and predictable outlook behind Baeck’s turn, from his refutation of Harnack to his interpretation of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, would serve as some helpful guidance for contemporary scholars and other people referred.