Poetry

Christians, nor in the geopolitical sphere by the secularists; it has, rather, been misunderstood and mangled in both cases. But it would be wrong to view this important work as primarily a polemic against these adversaries. In the case of the Christians, Podhoretz explicitly disavows any intention of “engaging in a dispute with anyone who believes that Jesus was the Messiah”:

As a Jew, I am by definition not among [the Christian believers], but the last thing in the world I want to do is challenge [their] faith. What I do feel it necessary to challenge, however, is the idea held by many pious Christians throughout the past two millennia that the Book of Isaiah foretells the coming of their faith.