The view of themselves as the chosen people of God has been maintained by Jews from the beginnings of their history to the present. The author explores the development of this idea in Jewish theology and law, and essays a contemporary retrieval of the classical doctrine of election. Through an examination of the philosophical implications of the idea, he argues for the correlation of election and revelation, and shows both what the notion of election should mean for Jews today, and how non-Jews can better understand it.

Many studies written about the Jewish-Christian relationship are primarily historical overviews that focus on the Jewish background of Christianity, the separation of Christianity from Judaism, or the medieval disputations between the two faiths. This book is one of the first studies to examine the relationship from a philosophical and theological viewpoint. Carefully drawing on Jewish classical sources, Novak argues that there is actual justification for the new relationship between Judaism and Christianity from within Jewish religious tradition. He demonstrates that this new relationship is possible between religiously committed Jews and Christians without the two major impediments to dialogue: triumphalism and relativism. One of the very few books on this topic written by a Jewish theologian who speaks specifically to modern Christian concerns, it will provide the groundwork for a more serious development of Jewish-Christian dialogue in our day.