Der Theologe Adolf Keller war einer der Pioniere der okumenischen Bewegung fur Praktisches Christentum und wahrend 20 Jahren pragend fur den Evangelischen Kirchenbund der Schweiz. Nach dem 1. Weltkrieg vermittelte er die Kontakte zwischen den Kirchen Nordamerikas und Europas. 1925 wurde er Zweiter Generalsekretar der Bewegung fur Praktisches Christentum und damit Leiter des Internationalen Sozialwissenschaftlichen Instituts. 1934 grundete er das Okumenische Seminar, Vorlaufer des Institut oecumenique de Bossey, das er auch leitete. Auf seinen Anstoss war 1922 die Europaische Zentralstelle fur kirchliche Hilfsaktionen (Inter-Church Aid) entstanden, die Kirchen in Europa, in der Sowjetunion und im Orient unterstutzte. Er trat gegen den Nationalsozialismus ein und engagierte sich fur judische Fluchtlinge. Marianne Jehle-Wildberger legt nicht nur eine gut recherchierte Biographie des bedeutenden Okumenikers Keller vor, sondern eroffnet zugleich neue Perspektiven zur Geschichte der okumenischen Bewegung. Marianne Jehle-Wildberger, Jahrgang 1937, Historikerin und Lehrerin, Mitautorin der St. Galler Kantonsgeschichte (Kirchengeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert), ist Autorin des im TVZ erschienenen Bandes Das Gewissen sprechen lassen. Die Haltung der Evangelisch-reformierten Kirche des Kantons St. Gallen zum Kirchenkampf, zur Fluchtlingsnot und zur Fluchtlingspolitik 1933-1948.

This insightful volume represents the "hands-on" experience in the world of academia of two Jewish scholars, one of Orthodox background and the other a convert to the Jewish faith. As a series of separate but interrelated essays, it approaches multiple issues touching both the historical Jesus (himself a pious Jew) and the modern phenomenon of Messianic Judaism. It bridges the gap between the typically isolated disciplines of Jewish and Christian scholarship and forges a fresh level of understanding across religious boundaries. It delves into such issues as the nature and essence of Jesus' message (pietistic, militant or something of a hybrid), and whether Messianic Jews should be welcome in the larger Jewish community. Its ultimate challenge is to view sound scholarship as a means of bringing together disparate faith traditions around a common academic table. Serious research of the "great Nazarene" becomes interfaith discourse.

Selections from the Fathers of the Church Outside the New Testament, our earliest complete witness to Christian apologetic against the Jews remains the Dialogue with Trypho, written by Justin Martyr (d. ca. 165), a convert to Christianity from traditional Greek religion. The Dialogue purports to be a two-day dialogue that took place in Asia Minor between Justin and Trypho, a Hellenized Jew. Justin argues extensively on the basis of lengthy Old Testament quotations that Christ is the Messiah and God incarnate, and that the Christian community is the new Israel. In the beginning of the work Justin recounts how he converted to Christianity. The Dialogue remains of great, and varying, interest. It has important information on the development of Jewish-Christian relations, on the development of the text of the Old Testament, and on the existence and character of the early Jewish Christian community: Justin's story of how he became a Christian is one of our earliest conversion accounts. The Dialogue is an ideal textbook for classes investigating the development of religion in Late Antiquity since it touches on many aspects of religion in the Roman Empire. This edition of the Dialogue with Trypho is a revision of Thomas B. Falls's translation, which appeared in Fathers of the Church, vol. 6. Thomas P. Halton has emended the translation in light of the 1997 critical edition by Miroslav Marcovich, and he has provided extensive annotation to recent scholarship on the Dialogue. Michael Slusser has edited the volume to bring it into conformity with the new Selections from the Fathers of the Church series.