CHRISTIAN DEFENCE

“Christianity and Islam are both grounded in a rejection of the central tenets of normative Judaism and in particularly pejorative views of Jews as people and as a people.’”

This is what Geoffrey Alderman wants teachers to teach ( JC, June 6). I respond as a Christian, without prejudice to any Muslim defence. Since Judaism does not organise itself around “central tenets” it is hard to know what the first claim means. Perhaps Alderman is, irregularly, treating the Thirteen Principles as being like a Christian creed?

But I do not “reject” any of them. Admittedly, my interpretation of some would differ from that of the rabbis. And I must actively affirm the election of Abraham, the revelation at Sinai, the divine inspiration of Tanach, and that the call of God is irrevocable.

The second claim is even more striking. It is not just that Christians have held some pejorative views of the Jewish people from early days (which is true). It is that Christianity itself is “grounded” in such views. That is so sweeping a claim about the essence of another faith that it has more the ring of a journalist offering good copy than a historian looking at all the evidence. If one looks for them, one can of course find pejorative descriptions of non-Jews in the Jewish tradition. Bringing them together as the very “ground” of Judaism would be as true, which is to say false. The Rev Patrick Morrow Church Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex