The Partings of the Ways: Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity

The Parting of the Ways is James D. G. Dunn’s classic exploration of the important questions that surround the emergence of Christian distinctiveness and the pulling apart of Christianity and Judaism in the first century AD. It begins by surveying questions asked since the time of F. C. Baur in the nineteenth century. The author then presents the four pillars of Judaism: monotheism, election and land, Torah, and Temple. He examines various issues which arose with the emergence of Jesus: Jesus and the temple; the Stephen affair; temple and cult in earliest Christianity; Jesus, Israel and the law; “the end of the law”; and Jesus’ teaching on God. The theme of “one God, one Lord”—and the controversy between Jews and Christians over the unity of God—lead to a concluding chapter on the parting of the ways. This second edition includes an extensive new preface that takes up the developments in scholarship that have taken place since the first edition in 1991. It addresses questions about the fragmented nature of the partings, the timing of significant events—in particular the early and latter phases of the partings—as well as questions about the author’s own theological agenda. This new edition also includes discussion of the importance for Jews and Christians alike to understand better where both religions came from and how the identity of each religion took shape. Also included is a new appendix in identity, exploring the mutual relationship between the two religions and asking if one religion can ever fully understand itself without understanding this mutuality.