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Instead, I saw the new gig as an opportunity to grow culturally as a Jew while strengthening my understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. I did this mostly in subtle ways: reporting on Christian Zionists and their close relationship with Jews, immersing myself in Jewish culture and history and learning to see the world through that lens, walking the Holy Land, watching Jon Stewart.

I took a big step this fall when, for the first time, I attended services on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest 25 hours on the Jewish calendar.

At the evening service, there was no mention of the Messiah, but the sermon was filled with godly exhortations and calls to holiness. I found myself surprisingly comfortable in this room full of people who considered my Savior about as believable as Santa, worshiping, in an ancient language, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Cohen's experiences were certainly different from mine, but the life lesson — that there is a lot Christians and Jews can learn about themselves from the other — was the same.

What's missing from Cohen's tale is any sort of transformative experience. Where evangelicals see a personal relationship with Jesus as more important than any degree of religious observance, Cohen sees valuable lessons for making Judaism more inspiring.

In the final pages of his memoir, Cohen thanks Jesus for changing his life. But this is no Damascus revelation. Cohen has not become a believer in Christ. Instead, he believes he has discovered in Christianity values that he sees as transcending religion. He doesn't conclude that Jesus was just a good teacher or a great philosopher. Instead, Cohen says, the way people worship Jesus opened for him new channels to communicate and connect with the God of Creation.

"Thank you, Jesus, for making me less of a cynic," Cohen writes. "Thank you for teaching me that prayers can be recited in many ways and in many languages and that God listens anyway. Thank you for miracles, even those of the golden dental variety. Thank you for small synagogues. For big churches. For gospel choirs. For holidays. Thank you for gratitude. For sickness and health. For repentance. For the lessons gleaned from death and loss. And, most of all, thank you for rebirth."

But this is not the gospel. Cohen remains a reporter throughout his memoir. In fact, the only way he could get an Orthodox rabbi's kosher stamp of approval was if he wore a press pass and yarmulke at all times. And there's a big difference between spending a year with Christians and spending a year with Jesus.

Brad A. Greenberg, senior writer at The Jewish Journal, blogs at TheGodBlog.org.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

My Jesus Year is available from ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.

Cohen's My Jesus Year website has a blog, excerpt, and other information about the book.

Cohen discussed the book on Steve Brown Etc., Talk of the Nation, Good Morning America, and Busted Halo.

Mark Kellner reviewed Mark I. Pinsky's A Jew among the Evangelicals in December 2006.

Susan Wunderink interviewed A. J. Jacobs about The Year of Living Biblically in November 2007. Jana Riess reviewed it for Books & Culture.

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February (Web-only) 2009, Vol. 53