Rabbi Michael J. Cook

Modern Jews Engage the New Testament Companion Figures: A Visual Aid for Teaching Rabbi Michael J. Cook

This fifty-two-page manual opens with concise blueprints for teaching six adult education lessons and four full courses based on Rabbi Michael J. Cook's volume, Modern Jews Engage the New Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-Being in a Christian Environment. The lessons are stand-alone sessions on various topics: questions posed by Christians that Jews find hard to answer; the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity; the Jesus of history; the Last Supper and today's church "seders"; the impact of Passion traditions on the Jews; and whether the New Testament is antisemitic. The courses address: New Testament Basics Jews Should Know (5 sessions) How Christian Holy Days Impact the Jews (5 sessions) The Four Gospels: A Concern for Jews from Each (4 sessions) How Early Christians Applied "Gospel Dynamics" (8 sessions) Accommodating calendar needs, the courses can be shortened (omitting sessions); expanded (extending sessions); even combined (by stringing courses together). Assigned for each lesson and course session are materials from the main text--which pages to read and which "Figures" to examine. The latter--the distinctive diagrams, pictorials, charts--not only aid comprehension, supply key biblical passages, and reinforce recall, but they also can stimulate group discussion. This explains why the manual reproduces all eighty-four! The idea? First, participants do assignments from the main book at home. Then they bring Companion Figures alone to class--or instructors distribute copies as each session begins. With these lessons and courses clearly laid out, time-consuming planning by teachers is already accomplished! And instructors preferring to devise their own courses now have models in the structures which Dr. Cook provides.