Christians have enjoyed majority status in the West for many years but in many ways this appears to be changing. What does it look like for us to live among people that are hostile to our values, morals, and principles? While these are new questions for Western Christians, they are very old questions for Western Jews. Today I talk with Rabbi Juan Marcos Bejarano-Gutierrez about how Jews have navigated being a religious minority over the centuries and what the implications might be for Christians today. We also talk about the ancient Jewish context of the New Testament and how understanding this history adds color to the Christian experience of reading scripture.
Rabbi Juan is an author who has written extensively on the history of Judaism and on Jewish engagement with the Christian majority throughout the years. Rabbi Juan recommended two of his books during this podcast:
For Christian listeners: Divine Fragmentation
For Jewish listeners: Killing the Torah
I also discussed the writings of Christian theologian NT Wright on the ancient Jewish context of the New Testament. A great book to understand this would be his, "New Testament and the People of God."