Jewish Liturgics in Christian Worship: A History of Jewish Festal Liturgics and a Proposed Recession of The Christian Liturgical Year into the Larger Judeo-Christian Calendar

Jewish Liturgics in Christian Worship: A History of Jewish Festal Liturgics and a Proposed Recession of The Christian Liturgical Year into the Larger Judeo-Christian Calendar

Though a Judaic religion, Christianity quickly abandoned many of the ceremonial, festal, and liturgical practices of its parent religion. In this paper I argue this to be primarily due to an Augustinian reading of Torah in the Pauline epistles in which it is seen as a tyrannical force that can be distinguished into moral, ceremonial, and judicial components, only the moral of which must still be observed by Christians. In this paper, I will discuss the historical, cultural, and religious background of several Jewish holidays in advocation of their theological value for the larger Judeo-Christian community. I will also seek to demonstrate the methodological failures of past attempts by Christians to integrate Jewish liturgics into their worship. Finally, I will present principles with which a healthy Christian recession into the larger Judeo-Christian liturgical year might take place for the sake of ecclesial unity, a more biblically faithful Christianity, and healthier inter-faith dialogue between Jews and Christians.