HDS 1680 – The Jewish Jesus in Modernity
Semester: Spring
Offered: 2025
Instructor: Shaul Magid
Meeting Time: T, 1:00 – 2:59pm
One of the more interesting developments in Jewish modernity, especially after the emancipation of the Jews in Europe, was how Jews understood Jesus as a figure in the Jewish imagination. Whereas most medieval Jewish thinkers challenged the theological presumption of the church regarding incarnation and church doctrine, the rise of Protestantism and its ostensible “humanization” of Jesus, enabled modern Jews to reconsider Jesus as a Jew and a figure that can be viewed in a positive light in and for Judaism. We will examine Jewish sermons and studies on Jesus in Europe and especially 19th century America.
This course will explore the “Jewish Jesus” in modernity, beginning with Spinoza and Moses Mendelssohn up the present-day movements of “Jews for Jesus” and “Messianic Jews” and contemporary Jewish theological investigations of Jesus’ messianic claims. We will examine the role of Jesus in German and American Reform Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, and Zionism.
This course will traverse three continents: Europe, America, and Israel. In Europe, how was Jesus a part of Jews’ response to emancipation and becoming “European”? In America, how did Jews respond to Jesus as a cultural as well as a religious figure, that is, how did Jews relate to a “secularized” Jewish Jesus? And In Israel, we will examine how Zionists reappropriated Jesus for their national project as a Jew who lived and died in the land of Israel. And finally, in our contemporary world, what role does Jesus have in ecumenicism and emerging movements of religious syncretism.
For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.