Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year
Harvey Cox, the eminent Christian theologian and scholar of religion, offers an intimate tour through the Jewish year certain to inform and enlighten Jews and non-Jews alike. As a member of an interfaith household, Cox has had ample opportunity to reflect upon the essence of Judaism and its complex relationship to Christianity. Organized around the Jewish calendar from Rosh Hashanah to Yom ha-Atzmaíut, Common Prayers illuminates the meanings of Jewish holidays as well as traditions surrounding milestone events such as death and marriage. Describing in elegant, accessible language the holidays' personal, historical, and spiritual significance and the lessons they offer us, Cox "is instructive and enlightening, revealing the depth and passion of his religious thought and practice" (Boston Herald). As seen through his eyes, the Jewish holidays offer a wellspring of discovery and reflection for every reader.
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Harvey Cox is the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1965, both at Harvard Divinity School and in the Harvard Fac- ulty of Arts and Sciences. His classic book The Secular City is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential books of Protestant theology. He is also the author of The Future of Faith. Cox lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"Warmth, humor, and first-rate scholarship ...[for] those considering intermarraige, and those... who simply would like to learn more about Judaism."--Kirkus Reviews Kirkus Reviews
"An illumination and a challenge, COMMON PRAYERS is a masterpiece of inter-religious meditation....[A] new phase of Jewish-Christian understanding."--James Carroll, author of CONSTANTINE'S SWORD: The Church and the Jews "What a wonderful book. Every Jew and Christian facing the possibility that a family member will intermarry--which means virtually everyone--must read Harvey Cox's memoir-journey-analysis of what it means to be a committed Christian married to a committed Jew raising a Jewish child....[H]e insists that the children of every Jewish-Christian intermarraige must be raised as Jews. This is truly a book for the future. It helps to define what the relationship between Jews and Christians must become as we increasingly become members of the same family."--Alan Dershowitz, author of SUPREME INJUSTICE: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 "Can two traditions be fully and equally honored in their distinct differences, and that in a manner that both partners find enriching the life of their family? In this book Harvey Cox affirms that possibility, and it takes a theologian to do so both in a personal and a convincing way. For thinking about God is not a zero sum game."--Bishop Krister Stendahl, former dean Harvard Divinity School "Cox has taken a closer and more sympathetic look at Judaism as actually lived than any other non-Jewish writer ever."--Rabbi Arthur Green, Brandeis University "Accessible and engaging, Cox blends stories of his personal journey with humor and a scholar's insight." The Los Angeles Times --
