Roy H. Schoeman (born in 1951 in New York City) is a Catholic and author who has converted from Judaism to the Catholic Church. Due to his decision of faith, he gave up a career in the field of economics and is now devoted to the Christian mission.
Roy Schoeman's Jewish parents fled from Nazi Germany to New York, where he was born and grew up. He received his Jewish education from non-Orthodox rabbis such as Arthur Hertzberg and Arthur Green, who taught at a "non-denominational" rabbinical college in the United States. The charismatic-Hasidic rabbi Shlomo Carlebach also influenced him.
He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School, where he received an MBA magna cum laude and lectured on marketing. In retrospect, he describes his childhood and youth as very religious, but he left this belief behind in the course of his career. He also speaks of a growing feeling of senselessness despite his success. He attributes his devotion to Christianity to the influence of apparitions of the Virgin Mary. He counts the Carthusian priest Marcellin Theeuwes among his Christian teachers. [1]
Today he gives lectures and appears as a conference speaker and on television shows in Christian media.
In his work The Salvation comes from the Jews, Schoeman has detailed his views on the role of Judaism in Christian salvation history. He sees in Christianity the completion of Judaism and therefore invites Jews to become Jewish Christians and thereby to continue to cultivate Jewish culture.
Any Jew who does not accept Jesus has not understood the true role of Judaism in the history of salvation.
— Roy Schoeman
In the Holocaust he suspects diabolic influence and entertains the interpretation that this suffering is expiatory in preparation for the coming return of Christ (parousia). He also traces the influence of National Socialist ideas on Arab rulers and warns of the influence of Muslim anti-Semitism.
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke praised Schoeman's book, Honey from the Rock:
"Roy Schoeman's work, Honey from the Rock illuminates the essential link between the Jewish faith and Catholicism through the lives of those who were born into the Jewish faith and have come to know the fulfillment of their faith in Christ and His Catholic Church. […] Honey from the Rock illustrates in a most concrete way the truth expounded so well by Roy Schoeman in his earlier work, Salvation is from the Jews, which I also wholeheartedly recommend."
— Raymond L. Burke [2]
Schoeman's statements on the mission to the Jews were also criticized from various sides. Though Schoeman's statements are philosemitic, he has also been criticized by Jews for his interpretation of Judaism.[ citation needed ]
Some Christian Churches, Christian groups, and ordinary Christians express antisemitism toward the Jewish people and the associated religion of Judaism. These can be thought of as examples of anti-Semitism expressed by Christians or by Christian communities. However, the term "Christian Anti-Semitism" has also been used to refer to anti-Jewish sentiments that arise out of Christian doctrinal or theological stances. The term "Christian Anti-Semitism" is also used to suggest that to some degree, contempt for Jews and for Judaism inhere to Christianity as a religion, itself, and that centralized institutions of Christian power, as well as governments with strong Christian influence have generated societal structures that survive to this day which perpetuate anti-Semitism. This usage appears particularly in discussions of Christian structures of power within society, which are referred to as Christian Hegemony or Christian Privilege; these are part of larger discussions of Structural inequality and power dynamics.
Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian era. Today, differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions, but the most important distinction is Christian acceptance and Jewish non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of halakha was not necessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Another major difference is the two religions' conceptions of God. Depending on the denomination followed, the Christian God is either believed to consist of three persons of one essence, with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance, or like Judaism, believes in and emphasizes the Oneness of God. Judaism, however, rejects the Christian concept of God in human form. While Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible as part of its scriptural canon, Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament.
The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, or values supposed to be shared by the two religions. The term Judæo Christian first appeared in the 19th century as a word for Jewish converts to Christianity. The term has received criticism, largely from Jewish thinkers, as relying on and perpetuating notions of supersessionism, as well as glossing over fundamental differences between Jewish and Christian thought, theology, culture and practice.
Supersessionism, also called replacement theology, is the Christian doctrine that the Christian Church has superseded the Jewish people, assuming their role as God's covenanted people, thus asserting that the New Covenant through Jesus Christ has superseded or replaced the Mosaic covenant. Supersessionists hold that the universal Church has become God's true Israel and so Christians, whether Jew or gentile, are the people of God.
Salvation is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, salvation generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences. The academic study of salvation is called soteriology.
Jews for Jesus is an international Christian missionary organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, that is affiliated with the Messianic Jewish religious movement. The group is known for its proselytism of Jews and promotes the belief that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. It was founded in 1970 by Moishe Rosen as Hineni Ministries before being incorporated under its current name in 1973.
Messianic Judaism is a syncretic Abrahamic new religious movement that combines various Jewish traditions and elements of Jewish prayer with Evangelical Protestant theology. It considers itself to be a form of Judaism but is generally considered to be a sect of Christianity,, including by all major groups within mainstream Judaism, since Jews consider belief in Jesus as the Messiah and divine in the form of God the Son to be among the most defining distinctions between Judaism and Christianity. It is also generally considered a Christian sect by scholars and other Christian groups.
Christian−Jewish reconciliation refers to the efforts that are being made to improve understanding and acceptance between Christians and Jews. There has been significant progress in reconciliation in recent years, in particular by the Catholic Church, but also by other Christian groups.
Adherents of Judaism do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah nor do they believe he was the Son of God. In the Jewish perspective, it is believed that the way Christians see Jesus goes against monotheism, a belief in the absolute unity and singularity of God, which is central to Judaism; Judaism sees the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, which is forbidden. Therefore, considering Jesus divine, as “God the Son”, is forbidden.
A number of religious groups, particularly Christians and Muslims, are involved in proselytization of Jews: attempts to recruit or "missionize" Jews. In response, some Jewish groups have formed counter-missionary organizations to discourage missionary and messianic groups such as Jews for Jesus from using practices that they say are deceptive.
Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology, otherwise referred to as Gentile Christianity, is the theology and form of Christianity which developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by the Hellenistic-Jewish Apostle Paul through his writings and those New Testament writings traditionally attributed to him. Paul's beliefs had some overlap with Jewish Christianity, but they deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the Gentiles into God's New Covenant and in his rejection of circumcision as an unnecessary token of upholding the Mosaic Law.
The Judaizers were a faction of the Jewish Christians, both of Jewish and non-Jewish origins, who regarded the Levitical laws of the Old Testament as still binding on all Christians. They tried to enforce Jewish circumcision upon the Gentile converts to early Christianity and were strenuously opposed and criticized for their behavior by the Apostle Paul, who employed many of his epistles to refute their doctrinal positions.
The Catholic Church and Judaism have a long and complex history of cooperation and conflict, and have had a strained relationship throughout history, with periods of persecution, violence and discrimination directed towards Jews by Christians, particularly during the Middle Ages.
Eugenio Maria Zolli, born Israel Anton Zoller, was an Austrian by birth, and an Italian doctorate professor of philosophy and author. Until his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism in February 1945, Zolli was the chief rabbi in Rome's Jewish community from 1940 to 1945. After the war, he taught philosophy at a number of institutions throughout Rome including the Sapienza University of Rome and Pontifical Biblical Institute.
Dual-covenant or two-covenant theology is a school of thought in Christian theology regarding the relevance of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament.
Hebrew Catholics are a movement of Jews who have converted to Catholicism, and Catholics of non-Jewish origin, who choose to keep Mosaic traditions in light of Catholic doctrine. The phrase was coined by Father Elias Friedman (1987), who was himself a converted Jew. In the Holy Land, they are gathered in the Saint James Vicariate for Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel.
The doctrine of the Trinity, considered the core of Christian theology by Trinitarians, is the result of continuous exploration by the church of the biblical data, thrashed out in debate and treatises, eventually formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in a way they believe is consistent with the biblical witness, and further refined in later councils and writings. The most widely recognized Biblical foundations for the doctrine's formulation are in the Gospel of John, which possess ideas reflected in Platonism and Greek philosophy.
Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity is a description of anti-Judaic sentiment in the first three centuries of Christianity; the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries. Early Christianity is sometimes considered as Christianity before 325 when the First Council of Nicaea was convoked by Constantine the Great, although it is not unusual to consider 4th and 5th century Christianity as members of this category as well.
The Eastern Orthodox Church and Rabbinic Judaism are thought to have had better relations historically than Judaism and either Catholic or Protestant Christianity.
Since the 1970s, scholars have sought to place Paul the Apostle within his historical context in Second Temple Judaism. Paul's relationship to Judaism involves topics including the status of Israel's covenant with God and the role of works as a means to either gain or keep the covenant.