James Limburg

Judaism: An Introduction for Lutherans by James Limburg. 7 A. This book printed by Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA publishing house, details basic Jewish beliefs and compares and contrasts them to Christianity. Chapters include Jews in North America; a History of the Jews; Israel: a Land, a Community, a State, a People; Jewish Prayer; Festivals; Rights of Passage; Jewish sacred books; Anti-Semitism, and The Holocaust, as well as reconciliation statements by the ELCA in Germany, the World Federation of Churches, and the Vatican.
An interesting paragraph about anti-Semitism says that if Christians do not recognize the Jews as God’s chosen people, the validity of the roots of our own faith are affected. (It would more or less cancel out our belief in the sacredness of the Old Testament, and our belief in Jesus as the Messiah who grew out of Judaism.) Therefore Christians are obliged by their own faith to oppose anti-Semitism in any form and make it possible for Jews to live according to their own faith in freedom and dignity.
Knowing more about Judaism teaches us from where our Christian beliefs derive. For example, what Christians call the Last Supper was actually a Seder (SAY-der), a dinner Jews hold at home in springtime to celebrate the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. The Seder became our Holy Communion. Knowing how these faiths coincide makes them come to life.
This book’s short presentation of the Holocaust teaches that anti-Semitism goes back centuries. Jews were often restricted in where they could live, what occupations were open to them, higher education opportunities, where they could travel, etc. Because Orthodox Jews could not ride conveyances to worship (this was considered work on the Sabbath, which was not allowed), Jews tended to live close to their synagogues. Hitler made use of anti-Semitism from the 19th century to gather Jews into walled-in ghettos, restrict their movements, education and civil rights, and eventually send them to their deaths.
This book has questions for further group study as well as a list of resources where you can find more information.
As a side note, my husband's Jewish grandparents and two small children emigrated to Ellis Island in 1906 from Ukraine, where Russian pogroms of killing Jews and burning their homes became too dangerous to stay. We also found out that his Jewish great grandfather on his mother’s side from Vilnius, Lithuania, chose not to emigrate to America with his children, only to be imprisoned in the ghetto in Lodz, Poland in 1940; Lodz was used as a collection point for Jews from a wide area. He died of either starvation or disease in the ghetto, or extermination at a death camp. We cannot locate any burial records for him online. Most Jewish families have stories like this about their forebears.… (mer)

I bought the first edition of this book years ago, read it several times, and used it as the basis for a Bible Study on the Psalms. My own old copy was falling apart, so I decided it was time to buy the revised edition, and now I've gotten around to reading the new edition. There aren't a lot of changes, other than expanded information on material for further study.

This is a short, basic study of the Psalms, focusing on how the Psalms accompany us on the journey of life. It identifies the basic types of Psalms and what ones fall into which categories, and meditates on their role in the life of the believer. I find it quite helpful both for personal devotional use and for teaching about the basic types of Psalms. It is not a full-fledged commentary on the Psalms by any means; it is more of an introductory work on the topic.

It should be noted that this book looks at the Psalms from a Christian point of view.… (mer)

Ecclesiastes has long been one of my favourite book in the Old Testament. Limburg taught me why:

"Where, then, does the book of Ecclesiastes fit in? Someone once wrote that the writer of Ecclesiastes has “pitched his tent at the far edges of the camp,” meaning that while the writer of this book is within the company of biblical writers, the message of the book is a bit far out, on the extreme edges of ordinary biblical teachings."

I love the rebellious tone of the Qohelet. I love the almost-beyond-grace explorations of that ancient wise man-turned-hedonist. I love that some of the passages make comfortable modern-day believers squirm.

Limburg is an excellent, readable guide to this ancient sage. Here’s a few of the things I appreciated about Limberg’s treatment:

1. Limburg doesn’t get bogged down trying to discern the structure of the book. No one agrees on a structure, so why waste time with it?
2. Limberg wanders freely from the text to illustrate it: you’ll learn about Bonhoeffer, Pedal Points, and old Tombstones in this book.
3. Limberg really grasps how important the concept of hebel is to the entire book, and has written his reflections with that in mind.

On the negative side, I question whether Limburg domesticates the Qohelet a wee bit. It’s important to remember that it’s the frame-narrator who tempers the message of the book, not the sage.

This is a good reading companion to the book of Ecclesiastes for believers who like to explore the far edges of life under the sun.… (mer)