What made you decide to write this non-fiction work? Antisemitism is a growing problem worldwide these days. But rather than focus on conflict, I wanted to let people know that there is another way to consider Jewish Christian relations. The book therefore focuses on ways Jews and Christians have cooperated and worked together throughout history. As a result, we might find that antisemitism is the exception rather than the norm.
Can you talk about your experience of researching this non-fiction work? And the dates of when you began researching and when your research was complete? I had been thinking about writing a book like this for many years, although originally it was supposed to focus on Christians who were supportive of Jews.
You could say research began back in the 1990s, when I wrote about Hugh of St. Victor (BELOW), a twelfth-century canon who seemed to have conversations with the Jews of Paris. I don’t think research is ever complete, but you could say it ended on the day I received the final proofs, so August 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_of_Saint_Victor
What is the date you began writing this piece of non-fiction and the date when you finished writing the piece of non-fiction? I began actual writing in 2019, and spent the pandemic year, 2020, working on it. I had a dozen friends and colleagues read it early in 2021 for comments, and revised it extensively as a result of their input. It went to press in September 2021.
Where did you do most of your writing for this non-fiction work? Normally I would be reading in a library and writing at home, but because I live on an island, and because of the pandemic, I did a lot of research and all my writing at home. I am fortunate to have access to research databases through San Diego State University.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I am fortunate to have an office at home, with a nice view of trees, shrubs, and birds. I tend to write in the afternoons, with mornings devoted to other things I am working on. I don’t drink anything (coffee, water, alcohol) while writing and find music or any other sound extremely distracting. When I have trouble getting started, or am beginning a new chapter or section, I frequently free-write by hand in a notebook. This helps the thoughts flow freely. I may use some of what I wrote, but frequently I don’t. It just helps me get started. Basically, though, I write on my laptop.
Please include an excerpt of one FACT or one set of FACTS that you were most impacted by in this non-fiction work. The excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. Although the book is about Jewish and Christian Relations, it is framed within a discussion of deep equality. That would be the one fact I want to emphasize. Deep equality goes beyond religious tolerance and accommodation and recognizes a fundamental equality among religious believers. The elements of deep equality, as defined by sociologist Lori Beaman are:
Recognition of similarity and acceptance of difference
Acknowledgment of complex identity
Cooperation and neighborliness
Repentance and forgiveness
Agonistic respect and courage
Generosity
https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/373
Each chapter in the book addresses one or more of these characteristics of deep equality as they apply to Jewish and Christian Relations.
http://www.crossroadpublishing.com/crossroad/title/blessing-to-each-other
Why was this one fact or one set of facts so compelling for you to discover and to write about? The master narrative of Jewish and Christian relations emphasizes discord, violence, and disaster, with the Holocaust being the epitome of the legacy of Christian teachings about Jews. But there is a competing narrative that is neglected. It is one that features qualities like neighborliness, awareness of similarities and differences, courage, repentance, and so on. Few people today know of this other account of history.
Rebecca Moore has more than thirty years experience teaching, publishing, editing, and lecturing in a variety of settings. She earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Marquette University and has taught as a professor at Montana State University and the University of North Dakota. She retired from San Diego State University in 2015, where she taught for more than 16 years and served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Classics and Humanities.
As Professor Emerita of Religion at San Diego State University she maintains an active research and publication schedule. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio, the quarterly journal on new and emergent religions published by University of California Press. She also co-manages the digital archives Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple and co-directs the Women in the World’s Religions and Spirituality Project.
Dr. Moore studies New Religious Movements, where she has concentrated on interpreting Peoples Temple and the events at Jonestown, Guyana that occurred in November 1978. A brief listing of links to articles appears here. Additional research appears in the book Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple (Praeger, revised paperback 2018). She has also written and published extensively on religion and violence, see e.g. “Violence and New Religions” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. The Politics of Peoples Temple and the Deaths in Jonestown will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.
An expert in the history of Christianity, in 2015 she published Women in Christian Traditions, a feminist analysis of the role women have played in the development of Christianity (NYU Press). Her narrative anthology, Voices of Christianity: A Global Introduction (McGraw Hill 2006), come out in a revised second edition from Herder and Herder/Crossroad in 2018.
Cambridge University Press Elements Series in New Religious Movements will be publishing her latest book, Peoples Temple and Jonestown in the Twenty-First Century, this year.