Jews As A Chosen People - Influence On Relations With Other Religions

Influence On Relations With Other Religions

Avi Beker, a scholar and the former Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress, regards the idea of the chosen people as Judaism's defining concept which is "the central unspoken psychological, historical, and theological problem at the heart of Jewish-Gentile relations." Beker views the concept of choseness as the driving force behind Jewish-Gentile relations, which explains both the admiration and, more pointedly, the envy and hatred the world has felt for the Jews in religious and also secular terms. Beker argues that while Christianity has modified its doctrine on the displacement of the Jews, he accuses Islam of not reversing or reforming its theology on the succession of both the Jews and the Christians. According to Baker, this presents a major barrier to conflict resolution in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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