Can the Christian Memory Be Improved
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Christian collective memory regarding Jewish relations remains deeply flawed despite decades of interfaith dialogue and reconciliation efforts. A troubling incident between Christian and Jewish high school students during a Holocaust presentation reveals how anti-Judaic tendencies persist through multiple theological frameworks. Analysis of three dominant Christian approaches—fundamentalism, liberalism, and neo-orthodoxy—demonstrates how each perpetuates problematic Jewish-Christian relations through distinct mechanisms: biblical literalism preserves apostolic-era prejudices, relativistic tolerance masks underlying biases, and the search for transhistorical essence fails to confront embedded hostility. Through theological analysis and hermeneutical critique, the research reveals that traditional Christian interpretive practices maintain problematic constructions of Jewish identity regardless of theological orientation. Moving beyond superficial reconciliation requires adopting a prototypical rather than archetypal reading of Scripture, embracing provisional christology, and developing interpretive methods that acknowledge both the authority and cultural limitations of biblical texts. Such hermeneutical transformation represents a necessary prerequisite for authentic interfaith understanding and the development of more theologically sound Jewish-Christian relations, enabling Christians to genuinely examine their tradition's shadow elements rather than perpetuating historical prejudices.

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Published 1987
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Chris Leighton