Books

A Baptist Among the Jews
Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities: Anthologized from the Talmud, Midrash and Rabbinic Writing S
We Survived: Fourteen Stories of the Hidden and Hunted in Nazi Germany
One Life
Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics (Heroes and Villains Series)
Kindertransport
I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust (A Puffin Book)
The Hours After : Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath
A Hero of Our Own : The Story of Varian Fry
Kinderlager: An Oral History of Young Holocaust Survivors
Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist: An American Story
FAMILY SECRETS : One Woman's Affectionate Look at a Relatively Painful Subject
Great Jews in Music
Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years
Tessie and Pearlie: A Granddaughter's Story (Thorndike Large Print Basic Series) [LARGE PRINT]
When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport
Neither Red Nor Dead: Coming of Age in Former Yugoslavia During and After World War II
The Journey Back
The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image
Dangerous Diplomacy: The Story of Carl Lutz, Rescuer of 62,000 Hungarian Jews
And the Sea Is Never Full : Memoirs, 1969-
Tattoo for a Slave
Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (Personalities of the New Testament)
The End of Days
Prophets Without Honour: A Background to Freud, Kafka, Einstein, and Their World (Mcgraw-Hill Paperbacks)

Average customer rating:

Not Exactly a Baptist Among the Jews
Approaching God
Fantastic book... very informative and filled with heart
Baptist Among the Jews
Loved it!

A Baptist Among the Jews
Mary Blye Howe , and Lawrence Kushner
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Like most Christians, Mary Blye Howe was uninformed about Jewish ritual and tradition. To satisfy her curiosity she joined a Jewish study group held in the home of a Hasidic rabbi. A Baptist Among the Jews is Howe's first-person account of her eye-opening experience of studying with that welcoming group and how this experience led her to a deeper, richer relationship with her God. While learning about the traditions of Judaism and studying the Torah, Howe discovered a new world of worship and ritual that expanded her experience to include several different Jewish groups, among them Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. She reveled in the joys of arguing with God (even though God always wins), synagogue-hopping on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and dancing with a sefer torah through the streets of Dallas. Page after page, we join Howe on her religious quest and discover how her once-narrow concept of God has expanded with her ability to read the scriptures and understand this new faith. Howe's profound and transforming experiences helped her develop a new sense of worship— one that eschews spectatorship in favor of participation.

Customer Reviews:

Not Exactly a Baptist Among the Jews .......2005-09-07

A Baptist Among the Jews is a great starter book for Christians interested in almost all forms of Judaism. The only 'denomination' she leaves out is Reconstructionism, explaining that this is because she had no access to it.

Howe takes the reader through study groups, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogue services, Torah retreats, and even spends time explaining her experiences with Chabad Jews, who are known for their black coats, fedoras, and their loyalty to a particular rabbi. By the time the reader finishes A Baptist Among the Jews he or she will have a lot of positive, in depth information about modern Jewish thought.

On the other hand (there's always another hand, isn't there?), the title leads one to believe that Howe is a conservative, born-again Christian (The Baptist part of the title) who is transformed through her experiences with some Jewish people. She is actually a pretty liberal Christian who enjoys "re-imagin[ing] scripture."

She attends and lauds a feminine re-imagining of a Passover seder with a Haggadah written from a feminist perpective, and says on page 102, "In my not-so-distant past, I, along with the churches I attended, feared seeing God as feminine, even while we hurried to add that God was not male. Translations of scripture that used feminine - or even inclusive - pronouns angered us because we believed that this was somehow changing God. No one, however, is changing God. We're merely expanding our *images* of God."

I am not saying anything is wrong with this, I am merely saying that the title of the book is disingenuous to portray the author as a Baptist-- The Baptist denomination takes the Bible literally, does not allow women in positions of power over men, they cannot be pastors, and they have spoken out against gender-inclusive languge in the Bible. Howe states several times in the book that she has belonged to several churches, each different from the last, and I did not get the impression that more than one of them was Baptist or even conservative. I could be wrong; that is just the impression I get.

I enjoyed this book - the writing is clear and the author is not overly wordy or bombastic. She writes almost like a reporter, weaving facts in with interesting personal stories. The only pet peeve I have is that she consistently says, "The Jews," rather than "some Jews," or "Jewish group." She says things like, "When I study with the Jews..." "..worshipping with the Jews..." as though there are about 20 of them. Most Jews are secular and do not study Torah or follow halakha, so the term "the Jews" felt weird when I read it every time. I don't think she would have said, "When I studied with the Baptists," or "When I worshiped with the Mormons," since it makes it sound like they are part of some little group that meets in a clubhouse once a week. Anyway, it just struck me as odd.

Approaching God.......2003-10-23

"A Baptist Among the Jews" is a passionate blueprint for achieving ecumenical understanding and cooperation. The author has managed to transcend the confines of her narrow fundamentalist origins and allow herself to experience other approaches to the Divine. And "experience" is the key issue in this fascinating story of the author's acceptance and inclusion by the Jewish community. Howe isn't overly concerned with doctrine or dogma. She doesn't bring a list of theological preconceptions or doctrinal preconditions to her relationship with reform, conservative, orthodox, and even hasidic Jews. That a person can actually come closer to God in a faith tradition other than her own is perhaps the central lesson of her book and one that more people would do well to emulate.

Fantastic book... very informative and filled with heart.......2003-10-22

This book is so filled with spirit and heart. As it unfolds, the reader is drawn into a deep understanding about spirituality with a sense of humor and feeling.
Great reading for everyone.

Baptist Among the Jews.......2003-10-17

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting and informative and gave an easy to read insight into the Jewish faith.

Loved it!.......2003-10-15

From the first page to the last, this book captivated me with Ms. Howe's experience among the Jewish religion and culture. This book is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand their own faith, be it Christianity or Judaism.

Books:

Books