right belief, right action

The other day in my judaism class my professor mentioned that often times the idea of "right belief" is attributed to christianity while the idea of "right action" is given to Judaism. Of course, both religions value both belief and action, but the emphasis, it seems, is perceived to be different. I found this really interesting for some reason so I've been bringing it up in random conversations hoping for some sort of commentary that will make me understand why or have more of a reason as to what about this statement strikes me so. Mostly though, I only got the response of.. hmm interesting.
My question is this-- Why do we put so much emphasis on what to believe in rather than recognizing what we do. Indeed faith IN Christ is important but its believed by some that the actual translation should be faith OF Christ. So, through faith LIKE Christ, we are saved. What would that mean for us, as Christians, to believe that we are saved by our faith in God? I think that when we say faith IN Christ, too often we begin to believe that all it takes to be "saved" is to believe in Christianity. That is to say, that Christ died on the cross to forgive us of our sins and so on. If we instead strive to have a faith LIKE Christ, we are forced to have faith in God. Its important to differentiate between having faith in God and simply believing in his existence. To have faith in someone or something means to trust it, to follow it where it may lead you. Why can't we follow God and trust him and still question the historical accuracy of the Bible? Why can't we wonder what the writers' personal agenda's were, why can't we have different ideas about what something means without claiming that the other person is a heretic? Why do we assume that in order to have faith in God, we have to believe the same things that have traditionally been believed? In Rabbinic Judaism, the rabbi's believed that the TaNaKh (Hebrew Bible/OT) was an "eternal book". This meant that new things could be revealed to them through it at any time. It could be applicable to all generations because it could mean different things at different times. Again, the emphasis was on how you acted, how you followed the law, not necessarily what you believed about the rest. Of course, I don't follow Jewish law, but as a Christian I believe that LOVE is the law, therefore I strive to make love a part of everything I do. I attempt (and often fail miserably) to have faith and love like Christ, so does it matter that I might not believe all of the things you think are "right"?