I have never read a better book on Anti-Semitism. Ruether is a well-known Christian theologian, whose original thinking has both spawned and solved great questions.

This book is a study of the phenomena behind anti-Semitism, but it is unlike any other study of this subject. The author traces the history of Jewish/Christian conflicts back much further than the early churches of Paul, where most authors begin. Ruether looks all the way back to the division of Christian Jews from other Jews over disputes in interpreting the Torah, and books of prophecy.

The study considers the social pressures of the early church to balance somehow the connection to Judaism, and the pressures from the burgeoning state of Rome, but she strips this question entirely of apologetics, demonstrating that deliberate choices were made, not out of desperation, but often for personal gain.

Reuther doesn't pull her punches. When there is blame to be laid, she lays it squarely on the head of the guilty party. But don't think that this is some kind of book of grudges. Ruether is an highly qualified historian and theologian who crosses all her t's and dots her i's. Before she makes any statements of guilt, she builds an extraordinarily strong case, that will have you sadly nodding your head.

Ruether writes with a light touch, never belaboring a point, so the book moves quickly; there is something fascinating on every page. This is a difficult book to put down. It's not often that such an academic subject is turned into a book read for pleasure, but Ruether has done so. Despite squirming sometimes just over the thought of the injustices inflicted on Jews, the joy of discovery ran deep, and I couldn't put this book down.

This is an important book worthy of great exposure. Exploring the development of anti-semitic attitudes of the church and its early leaders,the author reveals how the condemnation of the Jewish faith became an integral part of early Christianity.The idea that the Jews rejection of Jesus began two thousand years of persecution is a concept which should be directed towards the mainstream of religious thought. It is from this seed that the myth of the Jewish people's responsibility for everything from the black plague to control of international banking developed. As these sterotypes became ingrained in the Christian consciousness over the centuries they gradually shifted from a religious to a racial form of hatred resulting in the destruction of European Jewry by the Nazis in the 20th century.For anyone interested in discovering the truth about the roots of anti-semitism there is no better place to begin than with this book.

This is a great book exploring the intersection of ecological concerns and contemporary theology. The author basically argues that a strong view of the Incarnation provides a firm basis for ecological concern.

This book goes a long way towards undoing some of the most poignant mistakes made by traditional theologians who seek to divide the great ground of being into discreet plots for study. Religion, be it Buddhist, Christian or any other, is, at its heart not a set of received doctrines, but teachings about how to live. In this book Ruether and Gross weave together their life stories, the religions they practice, the teachings of those religions and the urgent questions that face people of faith today. The urgent question, of course, is how to weave back together all the pieces that reductionist thinking has split apart and in so doing reconnect us and the earth which gives us life.

This is a deeply readable and moving book. Its truth is greater than its title.

Rosemary Radford Ruether's WOMEN AND REDEMPTION, A THEOLOGICAL HISTORY is a gem. Don't be put off by the stuffy title or the author's theology professor background. This introductory survey is clearly organized, readable, and thoroughly engaging. Rather than overwhelming the lay reader, Ruether selects just enough details and examples to illuminate the main points of her narrative. Using representative thinkers (male and female) from the last two millenia, Ruether illustrates both the development of Christian views of women over time and the range of views in each era. In the first two chapters, she covers the early church from the various Jesus movements to the establishment Christianity of the fourth century. Chapters three through five follow the story from medieval Europe through the Reformation to 19th century American Shakers and feminist abolitionists. The last three chapters sample comtemporary feminist theology in Europe, North America, and the Third World. Throughout the book, general issues are balanced with close-ups of individual thinkers. This personal emphasis helps to balance occasional stretches of abstraction, anchoring the book to the real world. WOMEN AND REDEMPTION is an excellent introduction to the study of women's role in Christianity, one written with great clarity and a consistent (but never strident) feminist point of view. Ruether's presentation of various points of view is scrupulously fair and even-handed, and her attempt to make her subject accessible to the general reader while maintaining a high intellectual standard is totally successful. I strongly recommend WOMEN AND REDEMPTION to anyone interested in the topic of women in Christianity, but especially to women--whether they believe the Christian Church is a suitable home for a feminist or the opposite. Both groups of readers will find food for thought in this well-written book.

The most misleading piece of misinformation about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is that it cannot be understood: (1) Too complicated and (2) too ancient. This book dispells both myths and succeeds in covering the entire waterfront of the Middle East conflict in just 296 pages.

#1: Rosemary Radford Ruether writes the obvious: To understand the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, one must begin by telling the truth. Surprisingly, the truth is information any informed Israeli, Palestinian, or American would agree upon. But it is information tha takes enormous effort to dig out and put together, because it is covered by layer upon layer of disinformation, clever semantics, guilt, fear, the self-interest of a few, and predjudice. But even given these formidable screens, the facts can be registered by the ordinary mind. The good news is, as of the publishing of THE WRATH OF JONAH, one does not have to dig it all out and put it together oneself. The Ruethers have done so in easily comprehended prose, concisely and comprehensively. The fact that they have been able to do so in so few pages testifies to the simplicity of the subject relative to its reputation.

#2: A very large proportion of Americans believe Arabs and Jews have been in conflict thousands of years. But history of the conflict goes back only a century, and most important incidents only within the last fifty years! ...Another reason THE WRATH OF JONAH can survey its history in a short volume.

Between them the authors bring expertise in both secular and religious causes and effects. Previously, even determined readers could not find both in the same place.

The fun part of the book was how much I learned about twentieth century world history in general and about the last century's Jewish and American, Christian religious movements--taking place underneath my nose unnoticed.

Surprising to most readers will be that one does not have to understand Islam to understand the Middle Eastern crisis.

THE WRATH OF JOHAH is not partisan, yet it pulls no punches. It is compassionate to everyone caught in the tragedy, but it does not confuse justice with "even-handedness."

The Ruethers even provide some common sense suggestions for real solutions. They, too, are not complicated, but you probably haven't seen them in print before.

Unfortunately, matters in the region are worsening, and the authors provide little hope that common sense will prevail. Still, it is worth the read if only to resolve cognitive dissonance.

According to Ateek, the establishment of Israel as a nation in the Holy Land made the Old Testament a problem for Palestinians. "It has become almost repugnant to Palestinian Christians. As a result, the Old Testament has generally fallen into disuse among both clergy and laity, and the Chruch has been unable to come to terms with its ambiguities, questions, and paradoxes--especially with its direct application to the twentieth-century events in Palestine."

Ateek's solution to this problem is not for Palestinians to adjust their thinking to the Word of God, but to "contextualize" (i.e. to adjust the Word of God to the wishes of Palestinians).

Haven't we all wanted to do this when our desires went against the Word of God? Yet haven't we learned through painful experiences that God's view of what is best for us is always better than what we think we want?

Somehow Ateek fails to understand that to be followers of Jesus (who calls Himself "truth") we must be lovers of truth.

To make Palestinians feel good, Ateek tries to convince us that Jesus was Palestinian, born in Palestine, and that his disciples were Palestinians and that the Palestinian Christians of today are descendants of those early Palestinian Christians.

The New Testament gives us two genealogies of Jesus, both showing that he was Jewish, and the land where Jesus was born and lived is called Israel, and Judea and Samaria in the New Testament. Jesus told his disciples to go only to the children of Israel initially, so His first followers were Jewish.

It is an historical fact that Israel (Judea and Samaria) was not called Palestine until after AD 135 (some 100 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus).

Palestinian Christians are not Jews, but Arabs. How could the Jewish families that followed Jesus turn into Arab families of today?

Why should we gentiles be jealous that Jews were given a land by God? Jews rule some 9,000 square miles of land. Hasn't God been even more generous to Arabs? Arabs rule some 500,000 square miles of land. Why do Arabs feel that they must also rule the Holy Land?

The Lord told us that He had set the Holy Land apart for a special purpose. He told us that the Children of Israel would live there and that they would be driven out, that a 10th would remain in the land like seed, and that He (God) would bring them back and make them a nation in the Holy Land.

We Christians should be happy to see God's promises coming true in our day, because this proves that the Bible is true. And we Gentile (Arabic and others) Christians can know for sure (because He kept His promise to the Jews) that God will also keep His promise to bring us into the eternal home that He promised to us. How much better is that eternal home than a tiny area of 8,000 or 11,000 square miles for a few decades?

Arabic Christian brothers and sisters, do not try to change the Bible to suit our selfish ambitions here on earth. Know that God is wiser than we are and that we must adjust our desires to His Word, rather than attempting the impossible (i.e. adjusting God's Word to our desires). His way is always best.

Refusing to accept God's Word is futile. It can only bring suffering and pain to everyone.

Unlike the first reviewer of this book, I am impressed by the author's ability to forgive the occupiers of his native land. After describing the impact of the establisment of Israel and the follow on occupation of Palestinian lands (1967) from a personal perspective (his family was expelled from their home with no notice by the Israeli Army), he tries to find a way for Palestian Christians to understand the situation from a non-literal Biblical perspective.

If more Americans read books like this, we might have a better understanding of what is really happening in the Middle East. Peace will never come until the United States and Israel stand in the shoes of the Palestinians and accept the fact that a huge injustice continues against the Palestinians. Likewise the Palestinians must come to terms with the reality of the modern Israeli State and accept the fact that Israel exists today because of the Holocaust and the resulting sympathy for a Jewish State. This is a position Naim Stifan Ateek proposes.

This is an excellent read, although sometimes a bit depressing.

atik is both gentle and forceful. his arguments and old testament understanding are *very* biblically and historically grounded. as a christian who has spent a lot of time studying the bible, i find that atik has done an amazing job laying out the groundwork for a very revolutionary liberation theology.
theologically, atik *is not* a premillenialist in his interpretation in hermeneutics (and eschatology, as other essays he's written have shown) so, if one is a premillenialist (which is a very faulty, in my opinion, theological standpoint since it depends on a eurocentric understanding of scripture which was created at the turn of the 20th century and originally dismissed as "heresy")one will not take to kindly to atik's book.
ideologically, the zionist "christian" will confuse atik's understanding of christ as a palestinian. as biblical anthropologists have pointed out, the idea of "jew" as a race did not exist during christ's time. there was only the jewish religion and the national boundaries of Palestine where this religious culture dominated at the time. the racial ideas of "palestinian" and "jew" did not emerge until much later and were only galvanized as a binary in 1948. atik is referring to this historical fact.
the words are wise and compelling. atik has done a lot of research and has grounded everything with a profound understanding of the bible.

I think that this book is a very helpful introduction to feminist theology for someone who is already somewhat familiar with historical-critical analysis in religion and somewhat familiar with feminism. This book brings together the two traditions and presents a great framework from which to begin to explore feminist theology. This is probably not a good introduction for someone starting completely from scratch. There are less academic books, such as Introducing Feminist Theology by Anne M. Clifford which are easier to understand and navigate for the true beginner.
My favorite part of the book was the opening narrative written by Ruether (in the tradition of midrash) that imagines scenes from the Bible in a fresh and exciting light. It was inspiring, gave me goose bumps and helped me remember why I think that Christianity can be such an exciting and liberating spiritual path to follow.
The rest of the book systematically deals with topics that arise in "re-understanding" the Bible and Christianity in a way that honors and listens to women's voices which have, generally, been systematically excluded from the Christian tradition.
I didn't give it five stars because, like some of the other reviewers, I would have liked to see more evidence for some of her positions.

"Sexism and God-Talk" is based on lectures given by the author in the 1970's. The book was originally published in 1983, but it has much to say to Christians in 2002.

I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5, because I think that Ruether's comments about male puberty rites and the origins of mysogyny were weak and needed some documentation. There were a few other points in the book which I felt needed more documentation.

Nevertheless, "Sexism and God-Talk" is an excellent introduction to Christian feminist theology. Ruether is one of the few American writers to have defined Christian feminism in mainstream Western culture. She explains how being female came to be associated with evil in Western theological thought, and how, ironically, "Romantic feminism", which proposed that women were actually more spiritual than men, still was harmful to women.

Ruether insists that it is possible to be both Christian and feminist and that there is salvation within Christianity for all. She warns against reducing feminism to the hatred of men. Nothing is solved by that.

One need not agree with all of Ruether's political positions, such as her belief that democratic socialism is the best form of governance or her views on the situation in Palestine and Israel in order to appreciate her work.

I was totally confused by the previous reviewer's comments, so I read HIS profile (Ruether's is golden -- go look at HER bio!). This guy likes sports & video games & says every CD he's got on his public review is 'the best he's ever heard' -- a statistical impossibility.

So, I put this in as a 5-star book, just to counteract such an odd review. Did JJJ REALLY read the book? And what is so bad about feminists? We let HIM live, don't we???

Hatred is NOT a family value, that I can see... and I think that was Mother Jesus's message as well. As for me & mine, we will pray for dear JJJ.