Relationship With Christianity
In the Middle Ages, the entire tractate was expunged from many European editions by Christian censors and it was considerably difficult to obtain a copy. Where the tractate was present there were more censored passages in Avodah Zarah than in any other tractate of the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli). Certainly, despite the fact that many of the laws from the tractate are in force today, a large number are either out of force, out of practice or have been deemed no longer necessary by more liberal Orthodox rabbis over the centuries
Nevertheless, rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz and David Berger hold that the tractate does include Christianity as a form of idolatry :
Even medieval Jews understood very well that Christianity is avodah zarah of a special type. The tosafists assert that although a Christian pronouncing the name of Jesus in an oath would be taking the name of "another god," it is nonetheless the case that when Christians say the word "God," they have in mind the Creator of heaven and earth. Some later authorities took the continuation of that Tosafot to mean that this special type of avodah zarah is forbidden to Jews but permissible to gentiles, so that a non-Jew who engages in Christian worship commits no sin.
Most Christian churches permit the artistic creation of objects of worship. Throughout history, many images of Jesus Christ have been drawn, painted, sculpted, molded, and cast. These man-made images are often placed and accepted in the minds of worshippers as they pray, thus provoking the creator's commandments in Exodus 34:11-27, Deuteronomy 5:6-9, Exodus 20:2-5. It is the seal, mark or thought that is bound in the foreheads (minds) and hands (actions) that constitute the breach of the covenant and "strange worship".
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“Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers—they seem to jeopardize all our cherished concepts, even our self-esteem, our property rights, our powers of love, our laws and pleasures. The only relationship we seem to have with them is scorn or bewilderment, but they belong somewhere on the dark prairies of a country that is in the throes of self-discovery.”
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“But, with whatever exception, it is still true that tradition characterizes the preaching of this country; that it comes out of the memory, and not out of the soul; that it aims at what is usual, and not at what is necessary and eternal; that thus historical Christianity destroys the power of preaching, by withdrawing it from the exploration of the moral nature of man; where the sublime is, where are the resources of astonishment and power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)