Re: [TruthTalk] Judaism and Theology

[Bill Taylor]

I was at a panel discussion one time about fifteen years ago. The topic was religious tolerance and the panel was made up of an evangelical Christian, a liberal Christian, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish Rabbi. At one point during the discussion a very well-meaning and elderly Christian woman stood up and told the rabbi that she would be praying for his eternal salvation. His response to her was something on the order of, "Please do not pray for me my eternal destiny; I know you mean well, but pray, instead, for me now. I can tell you what will happen after I die: Nothing. What I need is prayers for the here and now."   Wow, that really floored me! I realized with that statement that I was looking at a man who held out no hope for the future. In his mind there is no salvation apart from the (first) coming of Messiah, or the restoration of the Temple, or something, and none of these are present realities; hence when he's dies, that's all there is; it is over; he will just cease to exist.   While I do not buy the idea that the Jews are theological disinterested (after all the above was this man's theology), I do think they are much more oriented to the present than we are, and not nearly so inclined to forward thinking. The comment, "Judaism is concerned primarily with living now," is therefore a sad commentary -- and, I believe, more sadly true.   Bill  ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 8:23 AM Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Judaism and Theology   the notion below sounds like the essence of beatle-mania*, the perfect way to deal with the reality of a two year old whose mind set, apparently, corresponds precisely to the mind set of Judaism    *related to the concept 'focus and center life on philosophy rather than theology'   On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:30:23 -0500 "David Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Judaism is concerned primarily with living now.