Undergraduate Course: Jewish Christian Relations in Modern Times (REST10034)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | To chart the developments of Jewish-Christian relations since the French Revolution in order to enable a better understanding of the different levels of mutual interpretation. Attention will be paid to the social, political, literary and theological interpretations of Jews by Christians and of Christians by Jews. Concepts such as 'dialogue' and 'pluralism' will be problematised and examined in their historical and theological contexts. The geographical focus of this course will be Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, broadening to the United States after World War II. |
| Course description |
Academic Description:
This course aims to chart the developments of Jewish/Christian relations since the French Revolution in order to enable a better understanding of the different levels of mutual interpretation. Attention will be paid to the social, political, literary and theological interpretations of Jews by Christians and of Christians by Jews. Concepts such as 'dialogue' and 'pluralism' will be problematised and examined in their historical and theological contexts. The geographical focus of this course will be Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, broadening to the United States after World War II.
Syllabus/Outline Content:
Students will read a variety of sources, such as Lessing's Nathan the Wise, Dohm's Regarding the Civic Improvement of Jews, Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, and including Jewish scholarship on Christianity and Christian scholarship on Jews in the works of prominent scholars such as Geiger and Wellhausen, Harnack, Baeck and Rosenzweig. In the post-World War II period the course will chart the development of organised Christian-Jewish dialogue in the Western World, looking at documents published by member churches of the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church as well as Jewish perceptions of Christianity as expressed in statements and contributions of individuals. Alongside these, the course will examine the expanding scholarship in Jewish/Christian relations in different academic disciplines such as Cultural Studies and Sociology.
Student Learning Experience Information:
The course consists of a lecture component and seminar discussion. The lecture component will be taught as a 'flipped classroom', either with an in-person lecture or with lecture materials provided online via Learn. The seminar discussion centres on the primary source texts assigned for the week. This will be taught in-person or online, depending on current government and university guidance. To prepare for the seminar students need to engage with the set primary sources and an appropriate range of secondary readings. Three times during the semester students will write a discussion paper that engages in a source analysis of the readings for the week. The discussion paper is a key part of the formative and summative assessment in this course. A course essay and a final exam test the learning outcomes for this course.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | By permission of the Course Manager. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of major themes and works in the history of Jewish/Christian relations in modernity.
- Summarise key interpretive concepts of the relationship between Christians and Jews on a theological level.
- Demonstrate awareness of 'relations' of Christians and Jews beyond theological conceptualisations.
- Critically discuss concepts such as 'dialogue' and 'pluralism'.
- Demonstrate an ability to identify key terms and their meanings and show good judgment about how to assess the relative importance of items on course bibliographies.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Empathy and imaginative insight, with a tolerance of diverse positions
- Independence of mind and initiative
- Capacity for reflexive learning
- Ability to gather, evaluate and synthesise different types of information
- Ability to engage critically with the meaning of documents and recognise that meanings may be multiple
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hannah Holtschneider
Tel: (0131 6)50 8933
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Rachel Dutton
Tel: (0131 6)50 7227
Email: |
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