Spiritual Connections Between two Faiths

books:


	• Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Disciplines (Pocket Classics) Lauren F. Winner Paraclete Press (MA), 2007 - 161 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Another Winner from Lauren

Lauren Winner does not fail to challenge the mind and delight the soul with Mudhouse Sabbath. Her insights and experience with Judaism continue to inform her Christian practise and enlighten other believers who seek to press beyond the assumptions of our own culture.

Even though I was raised in a Christian home in a New England state that still had Blue Laws on the books, my own family sunk into the mire of Sunday as 'just another day' when Home Depot and Safeway extended their Sunday hours. The Sabbath was intended by God to be a joyful day of rest and worship, a day to refresh our bodies and souls, but our dollar-driven culture has reduced Sunday to another day of chores and shopping. I became convicted of my own lack of Sabbath keeping while living in France, which is among the most secular countries in the world, yet the French are great keepers of the restful Sunday, even if practically no one goes to church anymore.

Upon my return to the US, it was a challenge to consecrate this day, especially as so many American Christians do not feel called to honor it beyond attending services. I was delighted to see Lauren Winner take up the challenge on this and other topics of devotion, to see how the Jewish faith can inform our Christian practise, not only on the subject of Sabbath keeping, but other important traditions like mourning, which have been sadly lost in our five-minute culture.

I highly recommend these thoughtful musings to anyone who seeks a deepening of faith and spiritual practise.

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Spiritual Connections Between two Faiths

Christianity and Judaism have one complicated relationship. Christians worship the God of Israel, but claim He is Three Eternal Persons. Jews since 95 CE have considered Christians heretics and reorganized their Scripture in opposition to the burgeoning Christian Faith. Christians claim to have a fuller Revelation of God than the Jews, but Christians were martyred incessantly in the early centuries of the Curent Era. The Holocaust, is a horrible and tragic reminder of what can happen if anti-Semitism takes hold (as it did in Europe) even in the hands of non-Christians.

But, despite our mutual misunderstandings, and scarred and conflicted past, Jews and Christians are coming to the table to talk and discuss our similarities. In a wonderful example, Jaroslav Pelikan the late Eastern Orthodox Yale scholar was close friends with the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Some of the less finer examples are the Christian Fundamentalist sect "Messianic Judaism" which is prepostrious and offensive to both Jews and Christians but nevertheless our differences and similarities are being explored.

Lauren Winner, an amazing emerging voice in the Christian world was raised in a Jewish home, and converted to Anglican Christianity later in life from an apathetic agnosticism. Her writing is fluid and conise. Her voice is warm and sweet as she explores our spirtual relationship to Judaism and explores ways that Christians can resurrect these practices that the Early Christians practiced, as they were worshiping deep in the Roman Catacombs or the caves in Cappadocia. Written in a converstaional style, this book is a delight to pick up and read on any day, just to soak it in. For me, I found it a wonderful break from the scholarly books I so often and compelled to devour, or the tired polemics of a "Messianic Judaism" books bashing both Historical Christianity and contemporary Judaism. Winner finds a perfect balence that she explores with poise and grace. This book is highly recomended for those interested in finding out our similarities to the Jewish Faith (and a deep faith at that) and looking to our own past practices.

I recomend after reading this Richard J Foster's "Celebration of Discipline", Kallistos Ware's "The Orthodox Way" and Jim Forest's "Praying with Icons". The latter two are from the Eastern Orthodox tradition but are written to be accesible to anyone interested in finding out more about the ancient Christian Spiritual Practices (Ware is a former Anglican and Forest is also a convert and friend of Thomas Merton).

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Excellent

Though Provking Essasys on relationship/differences between Judaism/Christinity customs. Winner was raised Jewish and convereted to Christiniaty as an adult. This adds a unique perspective. Must Read.

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