Jewish - Christian Relations: The Dark History, a New Beginning and Current Tensions is offered Tuesday afternoons, 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. August 2 through September 13, 2011 at the Austin Campus of Epiphany Lutheran Church, 10551 Sheehan Rd, in Centerville.
Skip Cornett, the chair of the Southern Ohio Synod Middle East Task Force, is offering this 8-week afternoon study for anyone interested in the topic.
Topics for presentation come under the three broad eras of historic Jewish Christian relations. The Dark History of Jewish–Christian Relations will focus on the plight of Jews in Europe, Christian anti-Semitism, the development of political Zionism, and the Protestant church in Nazi Germany.
A new era in Jewish – Christian relations is reflected in Nostra Aetate which was the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions under Vatican II, the development of post-Holocaust theology, and the growth of Jewish–Christian institutes of mutual understanding and collaboration both internationally and across the US.
The third era of Jewish–Christian relations referred to as Current Tensions centers around the issue of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank Palestinian territory and the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory.
Cornett has been active in Jewish–Christian relations for the past 12 years through the ELCA and has regularly taught the graduate course on Jewish–Christian relations at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus. In 2007, he attended the annual conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews in Sydney, Australia. He has participated in three fellowship studies at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington, D.C. He has also been active in education and advocacy programs calling for resolution of the Israel–Palestinian conflict through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Washington based Churches for Middle East Peace. He is also involved with J Street, the pro-Israel–pro-peace Jewish lobby. All of these organizations are calling for negotiations between Israel and Palestine toward the realization of the two-state solution.
If you are interested in participating in any or all of these weekly interfaith educational sessions, please contact Pastor Skip Cornett at wcornett@epiphanydayton.org or by leaving a message for him at Epiphany Lutheran Church at 614.837.2826.