Jews, Christians and Muslims in Encounter

Edward Kessler

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780334047155
• eBook ISBN: 9780334049913
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Ecumenism & Interfaith

This book reflects on one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the current and historical relationships that exist between the faith-traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It begins with discussion on the state of Jewish-Christian relations, examining antisemitism and the Holocaust, the impact of Israel and theological controversies such as covenant and mission. Kessler also traces different biblical stories and figures, from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, demonstrating Jewish-Christian contact and controversy. Jews and Christians share a sacred text, but more surprisingly, a common exegetical tradition.

part 1

Jewish–Christian Relations:
status quaestionis

1

Jewish–Christian Relations:
The Next Generation

The Foundations of Jewish–Christian Dialogue Today

If we take the twentieth century as our starting point, it is quite clear that two immense events have combined to provide a dual focus to Jewish–Christian Relations today:

• the Shoah
• the creation of the State of Israel.

Both spurred an intense desire among many Christians and Jews to learn about the history, theology and other aspects of Jewish–Christian relations.

For Christians, the Shoah resulted in an awareness of the immensity of the burden of guilt carried by the Church not only for its general silence (with some noble exceptions) during 1933–45, but also because of the ‘teaching of contempt’ towards Jews and Judaism that it carried on for so many centuries. As Jules Isaac showed immediately after the Second World War, it was this that sowed the seeds of hatred and made it so easy for Hitler to use antisemitism as a political weapon.

As a result of the soul-searching that took place after 1945, many Christians began the painful process of re-examining the sources of the teaching of contempt and repudiating them. Christian institutions, most notably the Vatican, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and certain Protestant denominations have since then issued declarations against the perpetuation of this teaching.1

It is, therefore, not surprising that many of the studies on Jewish–Christian relations examined, in particular, Christian anti-semitism. This tendency was reinforced by the publication of a number of key works, including institutional publications such as Nostra Aetate and individual studies such as Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Faith and Fratricide. The agenda of Jewish–Christian dialogue was heavily influenced by such works.

The Shoah not only caused Christianity to reassess its relationship with Judaism, but also stirred greater Jewish interest in Christianity. Jonathan Sacks spoke for many when he stated that, ‘today we meet and talk together because we must; because we have considered the alternative and seen where it ends and we are shocked to the core by what we have seen’.2

The need to discuss and to tackle the Shoah in Jewish–Christian dialogue is self-evident, but it must be conducted in perspective. Fackenheim famously stated that the Shoah resulted in a new commandment, the 614th, which stressed that it was incumbent upon Jews to survive as Jews after the Shoah.3 One remained a Jew so as not to provide Hitler with a posthumous victory. As a result, Jewish identity became Shoah-centred and, at the same time, Jewish–Christian dialogue became Shoah-centred.

There is a danger that by focusing solely on the Holocaust, Jews and Christians will gain a distorted view of Judaism and the Jewish people.

The second event that underpins Jewish–Christian relations today is the creation of the State of Israel, which has brought renewed confidence to Jews in their dealings with Christians. As Norman Solomon has pointed out, the ongoing existence of the State of Israel has resulted, on the one hand, in Jews feeling less threatened by dialogue and more willing to participate and, on the other, in abandoning an apologetic stance that defines dialogue simply as the education of Christians about Judaism.4

Jewish–Christian dialogue became Israel-focused as Israel displayed many of the tensions of Jewish–Christian relations – the significance of a holy land, the problems of religious and secular divisions, and the consequences associated with power and weakness. Then there is the subject of Christian attitudes towards Israel, and Jewish responses. For example, the Christian Zionists, who strongly support Netanyahu and the Israeli ‘right’, have – understandably – only received a partial welcome by Jews.

Great emotion surrounded, and continues to surround, Israel in Jewish–Christian dialogue. Discussions often result in controversy as, for example, by the immediate and volatile reaction of Jewish communities throughout the world in response to the Vatican’s document published in 1985. This document affirmed the Jewish people’s attachment to the land of Israel and the existence of the State of Israel under international law, but cautioned against religious interpretations of the State of Israel. At that time, the fact that the Vatican did not recognize the State of Israel only served to increase the furore still further.5

The significance of the State of Israel to the Jewish world explains both the enormous satisfaction, as well as the sense of relief, felt by most Jews when the Vatican did belatedly recognize the State in 1994. The recognition of Israel marked an important stage in Jewish–Christian dialogue as David Rosen, who was in­­­timately involved in the negotiations with the Vatican, explained:

This is the end of the beginning. The implications of Nostra Aetate and the subsequent documents called out for full relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel. Their absence had suggested that the reconciliation between the church and the Jewish People was not a complete one. Accordingly, for the last three decades, Jewish representatives have called on the Vatican to take this step. The agreement that was signed last week, therefore, has historical and philosophical importance as well as diplomatic significance. Now we can address the meaning of our relationship and get on to many other matters of common interest.6

The question is: what are the ‘other matters of common interest’? To be sure, both the Shoah and the State of Israel will continue to be pillars of Jewish–Christian dialogue, but they can no longer bear the load on their own. They can no longer be the only items on the agenda. Is it not possible that the Shoah will suffer the same fate as the First World War – that is, remain a pivotal event to those who suffered during those years, as well as their children, but for some of the grandchildren and following generations become one more terrible incident of history that can be studied in books and viewed in newsreels?

A similar picture can be drawn about the State of Israel. After 50 years of perilous existence, Israel is no longer a recent creation7 and, after the large aliyah from the former Soviet Union, no longer attracts significant numbers of Jewish immigrants. Its own interfaith efforts are directed more towards the Arab Islamic communities than the Christian. While Israel will remain a significant factor in the Jewish–Christian dialogue of the future, the increasing tension between it and the Jewish diaspora will serve to allow other ‘matters of common interest’ to take their place.

On their own, neither Israel nor the Shoah will provide the cornerstone for Jewish–Christian relations in the future. Other issues will come to the fore, and I would like to turn to two of them.

Jewish–Christian relations in a New Europe

The first issue concerns the consequences for Jewish–Christian relations of a New Europe. Even though it was a few years ago, it is clear that 1989 has marked a significant turning point in European history. At that time, and shortly afterwards, there was widespread euphoria at the collapse of communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe. Democracy and prosperity were promised. But the euphoria has now vanished; the promises have yet to be redeemed. Unemployment and social unrest have increased, and the people go hungry. Strife prevails. At the same time, the affluent West is fearful of succumbing to a bout of recession.

Superficially, the problems are economic. How does one move from a socialist to a free market economy? What sort of skills, training and infrastructure are needed? What help is required from the outside? If these problems could be isolated, perhaps they could be solved.

However, economic problems cannot be isolated from social, political and moral ones. Economics cannot of itself tell us how to create a happy and prosperous society. The free market system needs a favourable environment in which to operate and, as Adam Smith himself noted,8 its operation must be subjected to moral and political constraints.

The turmoil in Central and Eastern Europe clearly prevents the possibility of building a ‘favourable environment’. This turmoil is at its most extreme in the Balkans, where there exists a denial of citizenship – that is, equal rights – to persons of the ‘wrong’ ethnic or religious group. The naked meaning of ‘ethnic cleansing’ is ‘Get out! Leave the home where your mother and father lived before you were born! Because of your race or religion you are not fit for me to grant you equal rights on my territory!’ Those with ideologies do not pause to enquire by just what perverse logic Bosnian A can tell Bosnian B, whose ancestors may well have lived in the country longer than his own, ‘This is my country, not yours’.

What an appalling tragedy this is. The economic cost is staggering: a country poised to be among those who could lead the economic revival of ex-communist Europe has reduced itself to poverty and deprivation and wantonly destroyed the infrastructure needed for future growth. The social cost is even greater: hundreds of thousands of families have been ripped apart, friends turned into enemies, the flames of hatred fanned to a fury whose bitterness may persist for generations.

Another example of turmoil is Poland, a country that presents contradictory pictures. Some senior clerics have been playing on the antisemitic prejudices inherent in Polish society. Semi-ignorant clergy continue to teach Catholicism with attitudes towards Jews and Judaism that differ little, if at all, from the traditional teaching of contempt.

On the other hand, promising work is being done by Catholic intellectuals in Cracow. The Catholic Academy of Theology in Warsaw, in partnership with a college in Chicago, is educating its young ordinands in Jewish–Christian relations. In line with the Church’s new teachings on Jews and Judaism, the Polish bishops have produced excellent guidelines on Christian–Jewish relations. But the bishops and the new clergy still have an uphill task fighting antisemitism, as the controversy over the crosses at Auschwitz makes clear.

Although I do not think that the establishment of a Carmelite convent at Auschwitz some years ago was a deliberate provocation, it was naïve of the Church not to see that Jews would read it as an attempt to take over a sacred Jewish...

Table of contents

• Jews, Christians and Muslims in Encounter
• Part 1 Jewish–Christian Relations: status quaestionis
• Part 2 Jews, Christians and the Bible
• Part 3 Jews, Christians and Muslims