A Guest in the House of Israel: Post-Holocaust Church Theology

Williamson challenges churches and theologians to become aware of the inherited ideology of anti-Judaism that has distorted their teaching, even on such key matters as Jesus, the Scriptures, the church, and God, and suggests a radical, constructive alternative to the teaching of contempt.

Clark Williamson is Indiana Professor of Christian Thought, emeritus, at Christian Theological Seminary. Long concerned with the state of relations between Jews and Christians, he wrote with Ronald J. Allen the lectionary commentary Preaching without Prejudice, as well as Interpreting Difficult Texts: Anti-Judaism and Christian Preaching. His other works include A Guest in the House of Israel, and When Jews and Christians Meet. His constructive theology in conversation with Jews is Way of Blessing, Way of Life. Succinctly put, the purpose of the church is to spread in the world the love of God and the love of the neighbor. Intentionally or unintentionally teaching contempt for Jewish neighbors results in a self-contradictory message. For its own sake as well as that of its neighbors, the church's talk must be appropriate to the gospel and morally plausible.

About Clark M. Williamson