Abstract
Workshop format: Dr. Mary C. Boys will speak for about 35-40 minutes. Participants will then discuss the content of her presentation in small groups in the manner designed for the Minnesota Council of Churches Respectful Conversations Project. Following this, participants will engage directly with Dr. Boys.
Description of presentation by Dr. Mary C. Boys: The story of Jesus, particularly of his death and resurrection, lies at the core of Christian faith and identity. From generation to generation, different “tellings” of this story have functioned in sacred and saving ways for Christians. Yet there have also been and remain troubling tellings, including those that misrepresent Jesus as standing apart from rather than within the world of Jewish faith, that present a caricature of Jews and the Judaism of Jesus’ time, and that falsely blame Jews — even “the Jews” — for the crucifixion of Jesus. These sacrilegious tellings of the story, which have fostered untold hostility and violence against Jews, cry out for redemption. Drawing on her recently published Redeeming Our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians, Dr. Boys will explore what is entailed in such redemption and will offer a “transformed telling” of Christianity’s central story.
Mary C. Boys is dean of academic affairs and Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, where she has taught for twenty years, and is an adjunct faculty member of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, also in New York City. She previously served for seventeen years on the faculty of Boston College. Having received her master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia University in a joint program with Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Boys did advanced study at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research in Jerusalem, Israel, and received honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Catholic Theological Union, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Gratz College. She is the author of six books, including Educating in Faith: Maps and Visions (1989), Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding (2000), and Redeeming Our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians (2013). She also has edited four books and published nearly 100 articles in scholarly and popular journals. A Seattle native, she has been a member since 1965 of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.
Sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning in collaboration with the Minnesota Council of Churches