Into Another Intensity: Christian-Jewish Dialogue Moves Forward (2004)

Since Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, a revolution has taken place in views of most Christian denominations toward and Judaism. Until that time Christians had seen Jewish people and faith largely through twin lenses of triumphalism and supersessionism. According to this view, Judaism was a used-up, virtually dead religion of past, having given up their place as God's people to a new people of God (the Church) who replaced them in divine plan of salvation. All this happened when Jesus and were, in turn, by God, an event manifest to all with destruction of Temple in 70 C.E. This was generally held Christian belief. To Jews, of course, it was obviously a false belief. The Jews could not have accepted or rejected Jesus during his lifetime, since only twenty percent of lived in Jewish homeland, and only a small percentage of them would have had opportunity to meet or even hear of Jesus. What had ended in 70 C.E. was not Judaism, but merely one of its components, Temple sacrificial system of Sadducees. In fact, this passing of Temple worship led to triumph of Rabbinic Judaism that had been developing out of Pharisaic thought in shadow of Temple system. Only with Temple's destruction could synagogue, rabbi, and religion of Torah, prayer, and good deeds come into its own. It was not until long after Jesus' death that large numbers of heard for first time of Jesus Christ, God-man of Christian theology. Jewish religious leaders were busily reinterpreting Israelite faith to fit post-Temple conditions, but they could not find any way or see any reason to incorporate into their faith concept of Christ that had been developed by Christian movement. This was true for several reasons. First of all, Jesus had not accomplished what Rabbinic Judaism expected Messiah to do; Christianity was, in fact, preaching a notion (or notions) of Messiah unknown to traditional Judaism. Second, church that was presenting Jesus to world was now a gentile institution; and third, very notion of a God-man struck as pagan, as did many of ideas that became fundamental church teachings. Yet, these Christians, almost all of whom were gentiles, were claiming to be the new and true Here was a situation in which and Christians would inevitably be led into violent conflict. We are just now emerging from that period of conflict nearly 2,000 years later. That began to happen with Vatican II. Many are familiar with scores of statements reevaluating and Judaism issued since 1965 by virtually every mainstream Protestant denomination, as well as three official documents on produced by Roman Catholic Church, expanded by a number of statements by Pope John Paul II and various episcopal commissions. (1) I have evaluated these statements in earlier essays. (2) It seems to me that key acknowledgment in all these statements on Christian side of dialogue is that church did not replace with coming of Jesus. These statements all agree that, in following 2,000 years, continued to be faithful to their God and developed new and vibrant expressions of belief and practice. remain a people eternally covenanted with God. Today Roman Catholic Church and all mainstream Protestant churches recognize this. For Jewish side, key to successful dialogue must be recognition that, through Jesus, Christians joined in worship of God of Israel. Another way of putting this is that, through Jesus and his interpreters, covenant established between God and was opened to include gentiles, thus widening meaning of Israel to embrace all who followed one true God. Now, nearly two millennia after initial mutual misunderstandings, and Christians are at last in a position to realize what they could not have seen earlier: that and Christians are members of two branches of same ongoing covenant and that each is fruit of divine revelation in which one God has broken into history to reveal God's truths to two distinct but closely related communities. …