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Significantly extending the thesis of his influential book The Politics of Jesus and other previous works, Yoder here argues that the historic Jewish-Christian schism "did not have to be." Building his case on compelling historical evidence, Yoder shows that, properly understood, Jesus did not reject Judaism, that Judaism did not reject Jesus, and that the apostle Paul's mandate for the salvation of the nations is best understood as belonging to the contest of his Jewish heritage.

Editors Cartwright and Ochs clarify and crystallize Yoder's positions by locating them in relation to his decades-long dialgue with the philosopher-rabbi Steven S. Schwarzschild and by relating them to Yoder's own study of the book of Ephesians. They also show how Yoder's views on Jewish-Christina reconciliation have much to say about what it means for Christians and Jews to jointly be God's "missionary" peoples to and for the nations.

Copyright June 2003.