Judeo-Christian: Difference between revisions

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In the [[United States]], the term was widely used during the [[Cold War]] in an attempt to invoke a unified American identity opposed to [[communism]].

The use of the more inclusive term "[[Abrahamic religions]]" to refer to the common grouping of faiths which are attributed to [[Abraham]] ([[Islam]], the [[Baháʼí Faith]], [[Samaritanism]], [[Druze|Druzism]], and other faiths in addition to Judaism and Christianity) is also sometimes seen as problematic.<ref>{{cite book|author=Aaron W. Hughes|title=Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0K3Ia1rQCZEC&pg=PA71|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=71–75|isbn=9780199934645}}</ref>

==History==

The term "Judæo Christian" first appears in a letter by [[Alexander McCaul]] which is dated October 17, 1821.{{efn|"From all I can see there is but one way to bring about the object of the Society, that is by erecting a Judæo Christian community, a city of refuge, where all who wish to be baptized could be supplied with the means of earning their bread."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=M'Caul |first1=Alexander |year=1820–1821 |title=Extract of a Letter From Mr. M'Caul |journal=The Jewish Expositor, and Friend of Israel |volume=V |pages=478 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSYbAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>}} The term in this case referred to [[Apostasy in Judaism|Jewish converts to Christianity]].<ref>Judæo-, Judeo- in the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], Second Edition. Accessed online 2008-07-21</ref> The term was similarly used by [[Joseph Wolff]] in 1829, in reference to a type of church that would observe some Jewish traditions in order to convert Jews.<ref>{{cite book |title=Missionary Journal of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, Missionary to the Jews |last=Wolff |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Wolff |year=1829 |volume=III |publisher=James Duncan |___location=London |page=314 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cd8_AAAAcAAJ&q=Judeo-Christian&pg=PA314}}</ref> Mark Silk states in the early 19th century the term was "most widely used (in French as well as English) to refer to the early followers of Jesus who opposed" the wishes of [[Paul the Apostle]] and wanted "to restrict the message of Jesus to Jews and who insisted on maintaining Jewish law and ritual".<ref name="Silk-NCR-2019">{{cite web |last1=Silk |first1=Mark |title=Mark Silk on the history of the term 'Judeo-Christian' |url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/mark-silk-history-term-judeo-christian |website=National Catholic Reporter |access-date=18 March 2020 |date=15 April 2019 |archive-date=14 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014180104/https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/mark-silk-history-term-judeo-christian |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Friedrich Nietzsche]] used the German term {{lang|de|"Judenchristlich"}} ("Jewish-Christian") to describe and emphasize what he believed were neglected aspects of the continuity which exists between the Jewish and Christian worldviews. The expression appears in ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'', published in 1895 but written several years earlier; a fuller development of Nietzsche's argument can be found in the prior work, ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]''.

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The concept of [[Judeo-Christian ethics]] or Judeo-Christian values in an [[ethics|ethical]] (rather than a theological or liturgical) sense was used by [[George Orwell]] in 1939, along with the phrase "the Judaeo-Christian scheme of morals".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0j2qODEJkdoC&pg=PA401|title=George Orwell: An age like this, 1920-1940|last=Orwell|first=George|date=2017-02-04|publisher=David R. Godine Publisher|isbn=9781567921335|pages=401|language=en}}</ref> According to theologian [[Richard L. Rubenstein]], the "normative Judaeo-Christian interpretation of history" is to treat human suffering, such as a plague, as punishment for human guilt.<ref>{{cite book |title=After Auschwitz: Radical Theology and Contemporary Judaism |first=Richard L. |last=Rubenstein |author-link=Richard L. Rubenstein |publisher=The Bobbs-Merrill Company |year=1966 |oclc=2118249 }}</ref>

According to historian K. Healan Gaston, the term became a descriptor of the U.S. in the 1930s, when the country sought to forge a unified cultural identity in an attempt to distinguish itself from [[fascism]] and [[communism]] in Europe. Becoming part of the [[American civil religion]] by the 1940s, the term rose to greater prominence during the [[Cold War]], especially when it was used to express opposition to [[Marxism and religion|communist atheism]]. In the 1970s, the term became particularly associated with the American [[Christian right]]. It is sometimes employed in a separate context in political attempts to restrict [[immigration]] and [[LGBT rights]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Loeffler |first=James |date=August 1, 2020 |title=The Problem With the 'Judeo-Christian Tradition' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/the-judeo-christian-tradition-is-over/614812/ |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |access-date=August 5, 2020 |archive-date=May 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514230155/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/the-judeo-christian-tradition-is-over/614812/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Inter-group relations==

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===In the United States===

{{Main|Israel lobby in the United States}}

The rise of [[antisemitism]] in the 1930s led concerned Protestants, Catholics, and Jews to take steps to increase mutual understanding and lessen the level of [[antisemitism in the United States]].{{sfn|Sarna|2004|p=266}} In this effort, precursors of the [[National Conference of Christians and Jews]] created teams consisting of a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, to run programs across the country, and fashion a more pluralistic America, no longer defined as a Christian land, but "one nurtured by three ennobling traditions: [[Protestantism]], [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] and [[Judaism]]....The phrase 'Judeo-Christian' entered the contemporary lexicon as the standard liberal term for the idea that Western values rest on a religious consensus that included Jews."{{sfn|Sarna|2004|p=267}}

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The scriptural basis for this new positive attitude towards Jews among evangelicals is found in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 12:3, in which God promises that he will bless those who bless [[Abraham]], and curse those who curse them. In the evangelical interpretation this promise includes the descendants of Abraham. Other factors in the new [[philo-Semitism]] include gratitude to the Jews for contributing to the theological foundations of Christianity and being the source of the prophets and [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus]]; remorse for the [[Antisemitism in Christianity|Church's history of antisemitism]]; and fear that God will judge the nations at the end of time based on how they treated the Jewish people.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} Moreover, for many evangelicals Israel is seen as the instrument through which prophecies of the [[Eschatology|end times]] are fulfilled.<ref>Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of Christian Zionism by Stephen Spector, 2008</ref>

The use of the term "Judeo-Christian" in 21st century discourse has been criticized for equating two different faiths and being a vector for [[Islamophobia]] by exclusion.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/155735/rights-judeo-christian-fixation |title=The Right's "Judeo-Christian" Fixation |author=Udi Greenberg |date=November 14, 2019 |publisher=The New Republic |access-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-date=May 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510180637/https://newrepublic.com/article/155735/rights-judeo-christian-fixation |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://religiondispatches.org/what-do-we-mean-by-judeo-christian/ |title=What Do We Mean by 'Judeo-Christian'? |last=Goldman |first=Shalom |date=February 15, 2011 |publisher=Religious Dispatches. |access-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-date=May 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529221059/https://religiondispatches.org/what-do-we-mean-by-judeo-christian/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/the-term-judeo-christian-has-been-misused-for-political-ends-a-new-abrahamic-identity-offers-an-alternative-125523 |title=The term 'Judeo-Christian' has been misused for political ends – a new 'Abrahamic' identity offers an alternative |author=Toby Greene |date=December 24, 2020 |publisher=The Conversation |access-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-date=May 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529221124/https://theconversation.com/the-term-judeo-christian-has-been-misused-for-political-ends-a-new-abrahamic-identity-offers-an-alternative-125523 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===In Europe===

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* {{cite book |last=Sarna |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Sarna |title=American Judaism, A History |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2004}}

==External links==

{{Wikiquote}}

{{wiktionary|Judeo-Christian}}