Chad OPC
My recent post Dirty Faith

It's not meant to be limiting, but the only justifiable basis for patriotism from a Christian perspective. Just War is based not upon threat to our own lives, but to threats against our neighbors… to be sure, few modern wars could live up to traditional just war ideals–indeed, it may be doubtful that even the last "good war" that most people point to, i.e. WWII, would pass an examination of having been fought as a just war, despite being justified on just war grounds.

I went back and re-read some of my materials tonight when I had a few minutes and confirmed what I thought, which is that the Rabbinic discussions of when life begins, like those of Thomas Aquinas and others, which led them to talk about when the soul enters the child, were heavily influenced by Aristotle, Plato and the Stoics (since none of these groups existed in a vacuum). The perspective you mention is one that is similar to where Aquinas winds up via the thought of Aristotle (the best "science" of the day). At any rate, my understanding is that Judaism has only legitimated abortion in cases where there is a threat to the woman's life… I recall reading that in "Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought" and "20th Century Jewish Thought" though I have neither with me.

Bakke actually has a more extended discussion of the tradition as well. I think the primary thing to remember is that while Christianity and Judaism are separate faiths, they do share a common ethical framework in many ways. It would be wrong, i think, to allow concern over contemporary social and political persuasions to make us reinterpret a history that is well attested, though caution over how some might take things out of context is important. I've added some of Bakke's discussion of specifically Jewish sources below the "more" link above… since I'm away from my books, I have to rely on Google books and my memory, so take it for what it's worth.

I'm at a conference in MS and can't reply at length. I will say that the early Christian beliefs about the sanctity of life can clearly be traced back to Jewish critiques of pagan practice (Molech was not looked on with fondeness), which were extended and popularized by the early Church. At the same time, it's important to remember that Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism do not so much have a parent-child relationship, as a sibling relationship with 2nd Temple Judaism, and that some of the traditions of Rabbinic Judaism are a development of those earlier practices. contemporary Judaism may best be looked at as an older sibling, who has maintained the original language of the parent, but looking to it as definitive of the tradition, so that if something is a certain way in contemporary or even early Rabbinic Judaism, and different in early Christianity, then it is assumed that Rabbinic Judaism is closer, it isn't always the case.

At any rate, you're right that the primary impetus to ethical discussion in Judaism has been the survival of the Jewish people, and the influence of the frontier. It is, I think, allowing too much of the culture war mentality to enter into the discussion to play down the Jewish critique of such pagan customs. Jews may have privileged the life of the mother, but they never (as far as I know) defended the exposure of children, widespread abortion, infanticide or the power of life and death exercised (in theory) by a Roman Pater Familias. nonetheless, I think your caution may be warranted for those who might've made some assumptions about the culture war from the opposite direction.

I think there are some places to look for some interesting inter-relation however, some of which Bakke highlights, between contemporary Christianity and Judaism, and the ways each arrived where they are. It's also important to note that Christianity isn't uniform about when life begins. The western church has been much more nuanced about that, using the science of the day to talk abotu ensoulment etc… whereas the Eastern church has avoided those questions. It would be interested to look at the history of those questions and interpretations in Rabbinic Judaism and to look at the multiplicity of thoughts that likely existed in 2nd Temple Judaism. I'll have to look into that more later. If you find anything that relates to that, please post it or share it. Thanks for the conversation.

I have not read the book in question but feel that the author may be in error concerning early Jewish thinking (or reading too much through a Christian prism). Jews back then respected the sanctity of life but could be brutally “realistic” about pregnancies. Old saying: they may have been a “Holy” people but not necessarily the neighbours you want your kids to hang around; think frontier lifestyle with large doses of frontier justice.

Here's the point: sometimes we have to accept that these are faith systems that split onto two different railroad gages awhile back. Consequently, it's not always an "apples to apples" comparison.

Good neighbours have good fences and all that rot