No matter what we would make of Jesus, says Schalom Ben-Chorin, he was first a Jewish man in a Jewish land. Brother Jesus leads us through the twists and turns of history to reveal the figure who extends a "brotherly hand" to the author as a fellow Jew. Ben-Chorin's reach is astounding as he moves easily between literature, law, etymology, psychology, and theology to recover "Jesus' picture from the Christian overpainting." A commanding scholar of the historical Jesus who also devoted his life to widening Jewish-Christian dialogue, Ben-Chorin ranges across such events as the wedding at Cana, the Last Supper, and the crucifixion to reveal, in contemporary Christianity, traces of the Jewish codes and customs in which Jesus was immersed. Not only do we see how and why these events also resonate with Jews, but we are brought closer to Christianity in its primitive state: radical, directionless, even pagan. Early in his book, Ben-Chorin writes, "the belief of Jesus unifies us, but the belief in Jesus divides us." It is the kind of paradox from which arise endless questions or, as Ben-Chorin would have it, endless opportunities for Jews and Christians to come together for meaningful, mutual discovery.

The most prolific historian of early modern German literature in the twentieth century, Klaus Garber has largely remained unknown to English-language scholars. The seven essays selected here are translated into English for the first time and represent the 'essence' of Garber's work. Central to Garber's outlook is a break with the traditional canonization of culture into national categories. Moreover, he argues that literary history consists not only of intellectual history, but also political and social history. As he states in his preface to this volume: 'To bring Old Europe to life in all the variety of its cultural landscapes; to hear across space and time the voices that praised this multiplicity as a valuable possession; to be inspired by the past to respond to our own needs - these tasks constitute the noblest goal of early modern literary studies today.'

With the publication of this exhaustive personal bibliography, a new name must be added to the inventory of notable German Baroque authors. Johann Hellwig (1609-1674), a well-known physician in Nuremberg and Regensburg, was one of the earliest and most active members of the renowned Pegnesischer Blumenorden. Beginning as a disciple of Georg Philipp Harsdorffer and Sigmund von Birken, he developed during the 1640s into a significant poet in his own right. Although he has often received casual mention in literary history as a writer of worth, no book-length study on Hellwig exists; nor is he listed independently in Dunnhaupt's standard Bibliographisches Handbuch der Barockliteratur. Professor Reinhart has described not only every previously known work but has brought to light a surprisingly large number of other, often obscure, items as well, including Hellwig's letters and occasional poems (the latter alone total nearly three hundred) and a lengthy necrology in manuscript form that promises to be of future value to cultural historians of early modern Nuremberg. He has been able to establish ideal titles as well as detail unique physical features of the various copies. The descriptive bibliography itself, comprising the central chapter of the book, is framed on one side by a carefully, documented career biography and on the other by an annotated survey of notice and opinion of Hellwig from 1634 to the present; a supplemental secondary bibliography and indexes of libraries and names complete the study. The result is a highly reliable and useful edition that will be indispensable to scholars and bibliophiles alike.