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Surprised by Christ

My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity

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Surprised by Christ

By: A. James Bernstein
Narrated by: A. James Bernstein
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Raised in Queens, New York, by formerly Orthodox Jewish parents whose faith had been undermined by the Holocaust, Arnold Bernstein went on his own personal quest for spiritual meaning. He was ready to accept God in whatever form he chose to reveal himself and that form turned out to be Christ. But Bernstein soon perceived discrepancies in the various forms of Protestant belief that surrounded him, and so his quest continued - this time for the true Church.

Surprised by Christ combines an engrossing memoir of one man's life in historic times and situations from the Six-Day War to the Civil Rights Movement to the Jesus Movement in Berkeley with an examination of the distinctives of Orthodox theology that make the Orthodox Church the true home not only for Christian Jews, but for all who seek to know God as fully as he may be known.

©2008 Ancient Faith Publishing (P)2018 Ancient Faith Publishing Christian Living Christianity Spiritual Growth Eastern Orthodox
Compelling Personal Journey • Rich Theological Insights • Added Depth • Fascinating Historical Context • Powerful Narrative
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This audiobook read by the author, reflects, relates, and connects profoundly with interpersonal, historical, existential, and spiritual dimensions of ancient Judaism, The Jewish roots the Orthodox Christian Church, and the author's personal experience of growing up as a Jew in the United States exploring various branches of Christianity and eventually discovering and joining the ancient Orthodox Church. It is a humble yet powerful story that made me laugh, relate, cry, and re-connect with and praise God in my heart as I listened along Mr Bernstein's narrative of his life as it unfolded over the second half of the 20th century.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Judaism, Christianity, and their continuing legacy and personal impact on the lives of people from ancient times up to the contemporary world. Δόξα τώ Θεώ! Glory to God!

Hearfelt autobiography

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This work is a wonderful combination of one man’s spiritual journey, together with his immediate family, and a richly historical retelling of the experience of his extended family and ancestry as Jews living through the tumultuous past century.

And excellence material for anyone who wants to understand the spiritual core of Orthodox (Christian) theology, including Orthodox Christians themselves.

Personally Inspiring and deeply informed.

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The positive
Surprised By Christ is an autobiography that reads like a novel underpinned by a theological treatise lived out by someone who sought and found wonder.

As a convert from evangelical Protestantism who always heard that Eastern Orthodoxy was very similar in many respects to Judaism, I have always been curious about how. I know very few Jewish people and none of them are practicing. Fr James’ book really opened up a whole new vista of understanding how the two faiths are related and where they diverge.

"Why would God want to become man? . . . Jews believed that sacrifices were not necessary for God to forgive. We held that there are no constraints on God's forgiveness other than the repentant heart of the sinner. To view a payment to God as a necessary requirement for His forgiveness was for us akin to saying that God could not absolve sin unless he was bribed. That God had become human in order to be able to forgive sins did not make sense. The belief that God the Father had to kill God the Son in the flesh (a form of God killing himself) in order to forgive sin made even less sense…
"As an Orthodox Christian, I came to understand that the focus of the Incarnation was not to enable God to forgive; the emphasis was on the healing, purification, and ultimate transfiguration of mankind. The goal of the Incarnation was to energize our fallen human nature and to make it godlike--a process variously referred to as deification, divinization, or theosis. The Orthodox teach that God in His wisdom chose to accomplish this by assuming our human nature and transforming it from within--not from without." (p278)

That quote right there solved a personal issue I had always had with the Incarnation since my evangelical Protestant life. It made no sense to be that God—Who owns everything— needed to be paid a ransom or that He would need to pay a ransom to anyone or anything else. And that was always the explanation, that Christ was either a ransom to God for us or to Death for God’s sake. These two paragraphs alone explained it simply and beautifully.

The entire book is like this.

As an audio book it reads very well. You can tell Fr James hails from Brooklyn. All of that upbringing is in his voice as he tells his story. And his storytelling is on point. Sometimes his voice can become a little “drone-y” but the story of his life and the depth of his knowledge overpower that.

The negative
There are times when he seemed to get bogged down in details but that is just me—I like things to get to a point and so Fr James’ penchant for telling the ENTIRE story around his point sometimes made me want to skip ahead but there is wisdom in that as well

4.5 stars

Full Disclosure #1: I was given an Audible credit to purchase this book in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to do this, AFP!

Full Disclosure #2: I listened to the audiobook twice and then purchased the hard copy so I could take notes in it.

Surprised by Depth

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Surprised by Christ by Father James is amazing. I am a recent convert from Byzantine Catholicism which is close to Orthodoxy in so many ways but I have so much to learn. This book is so instrumental in helping anyone learn more about the faith. It’s a little bit biography, history both of the Church and of the life and times in which he grew up and grew in Christ.
Full disclosure- I received the audio version for free in exchange for a review and I’m so thankful. It is a wonderful book but I would not have had the time to read the actual book. It is quite long and I’m a busy mama of 6. I love his voice and it was a pleasure to listen along in the car. The only problem with that is that I couldn’t take notes. I will probably end up buying the hard copy to go back through and underline all the things that really spoke to me.

Very long but so worth it.

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Every once in a while I’ll choose a book simply because it’s available. I was recently offered the chance to listen to Surprised By Christ in exchange for an honest review. Though I knew nothing about the book aside from the title, I jumped at the opportunity. Once I had an audio code, I quickly read the blurb about the book, which piqued my interest - I thought it would be fascinating to hear the author’s tale, and I looked forward to hearing him read the tale himself. I also noticed that it would be 16 hours of listening - that seemed daunting, but I jumped in and started listening.

There are a few parts to the book, but my mind has since divided the book into two sections - the story and the lesson. I LOVED the story. Reverend Bernstein shared his autobiography - from childhood in New York, to his conversion to Christianity, then his time in college and experiences in Berkeley and beyond. Each moment of the tale I felt I was sitting with a grandfather who had a wealth of tales to tell. It never got tiring. He laced his tale with details about popular culture and major historical events and figures. I loved every minute of it.

The “second half” of the book, the lesson, was equally fascinating, though it required a different level of attention. While I could listen to the leisurely story, I found that I needed to speed up the audio in order to be attentive to the lecture. Reverend Bernstein provided a comparative breakdown of many aspects of faith in the Orthodox Church, especially as compared to Protestantism. What I found even more interesting was that he also paired it with Judaism and showed how the two aren’t mutually exclusive, but how Orthodoxy is the fulfillment of the Jewish faith, showing how Christ fulfilled the law as well as prophecy, and how Christianity is still tied to its Jewish roots.

Having listened to the book in its entirety, I would listen to it again. I am also planning to purchase a hard copy of the book so that I can spend more time in the second half of the book and study the information presented. Whether you listen only for the story, or whether you follow through with the whole book, it is worth listening to. Whether you agree with the author or not, the information he presents is well thought out, reasonable, and full of scriptural references. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the time to listen.

A Wonderful Story and a Great Lecture

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Loved everything including how it was spoken by the author. Worth every minute. I plan to go back and relisten to many of the chapters.

Profound truths told as a story.

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The weaving together of his life story with the theology of orthodoxy was done very well. He also outlines clearly the difference between orthodox beliefs and those of Catholics and Protestants. Highly recommend for any faith background.

He speaks a bit slow for me, so I just listed at 1.3 speed and it was wonderful.

Great personal story mixed with theology

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It is often hard to find modern dialogue from the Orthodox Church engaging with Jewish thoughts and ideas. This book does a great job diving into the differences between both religions while also showing the authors own personal spiritual growth in his faith. Ultimately stumbling upon Orthodox Christianity, the answer to many of his theological questions are found and are very similar to ideas found in his Jewish roots. When there are differences, the author takes time to carefully examine both positions and explain why the orthodox position makes most sense, whether in relation to Judaism, Protestantism, or Catholicism.

Theological Depth and a Compelling Story

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Narration by the author gives it added depth. Last chapter blew my mind. So thankful he wrote this!!

Incredible Story

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Since the book "Surprised By Christ" is an intensely personal account, I'll start my review on a personal level, and disclose that I am an Orthodox Christian convert from Roman Catholicism, into which I was baptized and raised from infancy. Because of this, I have always felt somewhat handicapped at understanding both Judaism and the Old Testament. I'm very aware that I can only view either through the lens of the Western Christianity I've inherited. I don't even know the right questions to ask. I was so attracted to Judaism that in my 20s I nearly converted, myself, and that journey caused me to approach Christianity differently. Christianity views itself as a descendant from Judaism, but as modern Christians, in a culture that has claimed Christianity for so long, how much do we really understand about the relationship between our faith (Christianity) and its mother faith, Judaism? (Not much, as it turns out, which is why this book is so illuminating.)

This is what I appreciated so much about Fr James Bernstein's approach to describing his transformation from a cradle Orthodox Jew into, ultimately, an Orthodox Christian priest (via a long trek through Evangelical protestantism). Recounted in first-person autobiography, throughout the story he shares the assumptions he inherited as an Orthodox Jew and the questions they generated as he approached Christianity. It's extremely revealing to hear his reactions as he learns about his new faith after converting. For instance, much of Western Christian salvation theology finds its basis in the idea of sacrifice, which we assume directly descends from Old Testament concepts of sacrifice. But do we have the remotest understanding of what sacrifice meant to an Old Testament-era Jew? Modern Jews have retained a sense of the significance - modern Christians clearly have not. And yet, it's integral to our understanding of our life in Christ and the identity of Christ, Himself. This is just one example in which Fr James brilliantly clarifies Christian theology through the light of his Jewish background.

Do not, however, assume that this book is any kind of dry theological treatise. Important as the concepts presented are (and richly supported through scriptural references and quotes from early Christian fathers), listening to the audiobook was more like sitting down to coffee in the company of a friend, and hearing a long, lovely and fascinating story. Fr James artfully weaves together his personal thoughts and questions, experiences of spiritual growth, and encounters with significant history (a front-row seat in Israel's 6-Day War, a narrow escape from Vietnam conscription, participation in the lively Berkeley culture of the 60s and 70s). The author reads the book at a leisurely pace, which enriches the story and also makes it easier to follow when he delves into rich theology and scripture.

This book is so multi-layered it will bear repeated listening. I am very grateful to Fr James Bernstein for having written it, because it presented answers to questions I didn't know I had, but that prove critical to my understanding of my faith. If you are already a Christian, this book will enrich your understanding of Christianity in unexpected ways: be prepared to let go of what you think you know. And if you aren't a Christian, enjoy a great story that will still enlighten you about parts of our cultural history that are, in general, meagerly understood. Fr James Bernstein brings an invaluable voice to the conversation of culture, history and faith.

Will Change Your Understanding of Christianity

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