Boys, Mary C.. Has God Only One Blessing?

Book Review

Has God Only One Blessing?
Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding

by Mary C. Boys. Paulist Press, New York and Mahwah, NJ, 2000
393 pp., $29.95, paper

In this magisterial book, Mary Boys distills the fruits of a generation of Christian

biblical, liturgical, and systematic theology, blends in the sharp piquancy of

Jewish-Christian dialogue, and produces a vintage worthy to savor as we welcome the new

millennium....Boys’ achievement is as remarkable as it is timely.

 

 

Contents

 

Preface
Introduction

 

PART I: PARABLES

 

1. Sion"s Story
2. Tales of Two Texts
3. Synagoga and Ecclesia

 

PART II: PARABLES IN CONTEXT

 

4. Jews and Christians in Historical Perspective
5. A Revised Story for the Church: Supersessionism Replaced

 

PART III: CHRISTIAN ORIGINS IN CONTEXT

 

6. The Complex World of First-Century Judaism
7. Jesus" World: "A Composition of Place"
8. "Jesus" Renewal Movement" Becomes "Christianity"
9. The Partings: Christianity"s Prolonged and Polemical Break with Judaism
10. The Emergence of a Distinctive Christian Theology

 

PART IV: CHRISTIAN ORIGINS IN THE CHURCH"S LIFE

 

11. A New Lens on Scripture
12. The Liturgy: A Call to Conversion
13. The Cross as a Christian Symbol

 

PART V: ECCLESIA CHANGING

 

14. Ecclesia"s New Posture: The Transformation in Church Teaching
15. Re-educating Ecclesia

 

 

 

Appendix – God"s Mercy Endures Forever: Guidelines on the Presentation of Jews

 

and Judaism in Catholic Preaching

 

 

 

 

 

Notes
Bibliography

 

 

In her new book, Has God Only One Blessing?, Mary Boys presents an overview of the

church’s troubled relations to and distorted image of the Jews and Judaism over the

centuries, together with proposals for a theological and practical reconstruction of the

relationship. "The fruit of years of personal experience, dialogue, and research, this

is a ground-breaking work in every way," says Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., Distinguished

Professor of Theology at Fordham University. "With a wealth of examples and argument,

it challenges the inherited idea that Christianity has fulfilled or superseded Judaism as

God’s favored religion, and crafts an alternative vision of the church and synagogue as

partners rather than rivals. Preachers, educators, pastoral ministers, and thoughtful

persons of all stripes will be stunned by this mirror held up to their assumptions and moved

to translate insight into action."

Rabbi A. James Rudin, Senior Interreligious Advisor for the American Jewish Committee

(New York), has described Has God Only One Blessing? as "one of the most

important books I have ever read" (see full text of his review),

and Rabbi Michael Signer, Abrams Professor in the Department of Theology of Notre Dame

University, has stated: "In these pages Jews can discern the true fruits of more than

twenty years that Mary Boys has spent in dialogue with them."

Sister Mary C. Boys, S.N.J.M., is the Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology

at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and is the author of three previous books. Has

God Only One Blessing? includes 64 pages of notes and a 25-page bibliography, and as an

appendix, the full text of the 1988 publication of the National Conference of Catholic

Bishops, "God"s Mercy Endures Forever: Notes on the Presentation of Jews and Judaism

in Catholic Preaching."

Franklin Sherman

Introduction to the book, including a definition of key terms.