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Common Prayers: Faith, Family and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year
Harvey Cox, the eminent Christian theologian and scholar of religion, offers an intimate tour through the Jewish year certain to inform and enlighten Jews and non-Jews alike. As a member of an interfaith household, Cox has had ample opportunity to reflect upon the essence of Judaism and its complex relationship to Christianity. Organized around the Jewish calendar from Rosh Hashanah to Yom ha-Atzmaíut, Common Prayers illuminates the meanings of Jewish holidays as well as traditions surrounding milestone events such as death and marriage. Describing in elegant, accessible language the holidays’ personal, historical, and spiritual significance and the lessons they offer us, Cox “is instructive and enlightening, revealing the depth and passion of his religious thought and practice” (Boston Herald). As seen through his eyes, the Jewish holidays offer a wellspring of discovery and reflection for every reader.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
41 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Harvey Cox
55 books45 followersHarvey Gallagher Cox Jr., Ph.D. (History and Philosophy of Religion, Harvard University, 1963; B.D., Yale Divinity School, 1955) was Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he had been teaching since 1965, both at HDS and in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, until his retirement in 2009.
An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. Among the issues he explores are: urbanization, theological developments in world Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and current spiritual movements in the global setting. His most recent book is When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Decisions Today. His Secular City, published in 1965, became an international bestseller with more than 1 million copies sold. It was selected by the University of Marburg as one of the most influential books of Protestant theology in the twentieth century.
An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. Among the issues he explores are: urbanization, theological developments in world Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and current spiritual movements in the global setting. His most recent book is When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Decisions Today. His Secular City, published in 1965, became an international bestseller with more than 1 million copies sold. It was selected by the University of Marburg as one of the most influential books of Protestant theology in the twentieth century.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 21, 2009
fifteen pages into this i already had like, 5 separate a-HA moments. it goes chronologically through the jewish year, and i am only on purim, but there are incredible insights on every page. has already helped me to find the christian and jewish narratives even more resonant.
August 17, 2022
This book made me weep - with joy, with sorrow, with new comprehension, with the wonder of such a thing as a book in my hands. Highly recommend. Highly.
March 9, 2020
This book explores the relationship between Judaism and Christianity from the focus of a Christian spouse of a Jewish woman and the father of their son that they are raising as a Jew. He follows the Jewish calendar, more or less, and concludes that while there are differences but not as many as Jews and Christians believe. This is a deep dive into the theology of both religions
December 7, 2013
Excellent work. The reading of this was prompted by a bunch of my husband's Mormon coworkers having Jewphilia and reading Judaism for Dummies. I was curious to see what they were reading, and when I went to pick it up, this was there as well. I'll probably end up buying a few copies to keep on hand to lend.
Cox is a Christian theologian married to a Jewish woman. He explores the Jewish culture as an outsider-insider and compares it to Christianity, currently and historicallly. It's much more in depth than the other (which is also good). The beginning chapters are much better than the later ones due to their topics. He also avoids the common lay Christian pitfall of not knowing anything about the history of either - or thinking of Jews as frozen in time 2000 years ago. He gets a lot about Jews, but doesn't act like he knows everything, and is respectful of both traditions, as well as Christian traditions other than his own.
I learned a lot about Christian thought and Christianity, about which I don't know that much, and also how Jews are seen from the outside when not filtered through prejudice. I think I will keep this one around for other times when Christians ask me about Jews and want something deeper, but understandable from their background (as opposed to Kushner's "To Life").
Some chapters on modern Israel were a little long, at the expense of delving more into the true heart of Judaism, and his "Jewish year" theme didn't completely play out - the idea was to structure the book around the Jewish calendar but he sort of misses that - starts off ok, but somewhere in the middle derails into all this Israeli stuff which is sort of unrelated to the theme of the rest of the book - and then somehow gets off track almost totally, even not having a mention of Shavuot, kind of a huge slip. Not a big deal but the concept of the Jewish year derailed there in the middle. Also - shiva is covered, but brises are not? Huh? Absolutely could have been more complete, needed better editing.
Anyway - I think it's an excellent book to recommend for Christians interested in Jews, especially those who tend to take what I call the "blackface approach" - taking over the traditions while mocking them. That said, it's well written and deep - not a hard read, but maybe more complex than a lot of them really want to know. I thought it was interesting and actually read it in one night because it was so compelling and it gave me a deeper understanding of a lot of Christianity as well.
My favorite line: "How is it that Jews often seem to take their religion so lightly and yet so seriously at the same time? At one moment they can poke fun at it with a wryness that would shock a devout Presbyterian, but in the next they are willing to die rather than give it up."
One little annoyance: in all of these kinds of books, can't they get one basically educated Jew to check it - "Shuvat" for "Shvat" and similar errors still abound, which unfortunately often allows this kind of book to be dismissed by Jews. It's like, if you can't get that basic stuff right, how can you get the deeper stuff? In fairness, I think some of the transliterations may be standard in Christian scholarship (nepes hayya for nefesh chaya?)...but still. It discredits an otherwise lovely work.
Cox is a Christian theologian married to a Jewish woman. He explores the Jewish culture as an outsider-insider and compares it to Christianity, currently and historicallly. It's much more in depth than the other (which is also good). The beginning chapters are much better than the later ones due to their topics. He also avoids the common lay Christian pitfall of not knowing anything about the history of either - or thinking of Jews as frozen in time 2000 years ago. He gets a lot about Jews, but doesn't act like he knows everything, and is respectful of both traditions, as well as Christian traditions other than his own.
I learned a lot about Christian thought and Christianity, about which I don't know that much, and also how Jews are seen from the outside when not filtered through prejudice. I think I will keep this one around for other times when Christians ask me about Jews and want something deeper, but understandable from their background (as opposed to Kushner's "To Life").
Some chapters on modern Israel were a little long, at the expense of delving more into the true heart of Judaism, and his "Jewish year" theme didn't completely play out - the idea was to structure the book around the Jewish calendar but he sort of misses that - starts off ok, but somewhere in the middle derails into all this Israeli stuff which is sort of unrelated to the theme of the rest of the book - and then somehow gets off track almost totally, even not having a mention of Shavuot, kind of a huge slip. Not a big deal but the concept of the Jewish year derailed there in the middle. Also - shiva is covered, but brises are not? Huh? Absolutely could have been more complete, needed better editing.
Anyway - I think it's an excellent book to recommend for Christians interested in Jews, especially those who tend to take what I call the "blackface approach" - taking over the traditions while mocking them. That said, it's well written and deep - not a hard read, but maybe more complex than a lot of them really want to know. I thought it was interesting and actually read it in one night because it was so compelling and it gave me a deeper understanding of a lot of Christianity as well.
My favorite line: "How is it that Jews often seem to take their religion so lightly and yet so seriously at the same time? At one moment they can poke fun at it with a wryness that would shock a devout Presbyterian, but in the next they are willing to die rather than give it up."
One little annoyance: in all of these kinds of books, can't they get one basically educated Jew to check it - "Shuvat" for "Shvat" and similar errors still abound, which unfortunately often allows this kind of book to be dismissed by Jews. It's like, if you can't get that basic stuff right, how can you get the deeper stuff? In fairness, I think some of the transliterations may be standard in Christian scholarship (nepes hayya for nefesh chaya?)...but still. It discredits an otherwise lovely work.
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April 24, 2008Wonderful, Sensitive and Essential Insight: Another amazing work by Harvey Cox. Every Christian Pastor worthy of their position must have and share this book. Cox's insight, based on "inside" experience, will help every Christian leader become a better teacher and overall spiritual shepherd.
August 20, 2014
This author is a Christian man who is married to a Jewish woman and raising their daughter in the Jewish tradition. His experiences of Jewish ritual and family life inform his understanding of Jesus and his own Christianity.
August 12, 2009
Insightful, informative for someone raised in a Christian tradition. Passed this on to Molly and Peter.
June 22, 2012
Rachel said basically everything I would want to.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews