Education for Shalom: Religion Textbooks and the Enhancement of the Catholic and Jewish Relationship (review)

General Book Reviews 161 alia) such significant studies as Geoffrey Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich, Michael Kater, Doctors under Hitler, or Friedlander's previously cited studies. George M. Kren Department of History Kansas State University Education for Shalom: Religion Textbooks and the Enhancement of the Catholic and Jewish Relationship, by Philip A. Cunningham. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1995. 169 pp. $11.95. In the late fifties and early sixties the American Jewish Committee launched a textbook analysis project that involved having social scientific researchers from the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish communities examine their own widely used educational materials at the primary and secondary levels regarding stereotypical portraits of religious and racial/ethnic outgroups. The research was carried out at St. Louis University (Catholic), Yale University (Protestant), and Dropsie College (Jewish). The results of the Christian studies were eventually published in book form and led to a significant revamping of educational materials used by the churches. This was especially the case with respect to the image of Jews and Judaism. A follow-up study on the portrait of Jews and Judaism in Catholic textbooks was produced by Dr. Eugene 1. Fisher (who currently directs Catholic-Jewish Relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) in the mid-seventies. The initial studies, as well as the Fisher update, identified several major problematical areas in the educational materials' depiction ofJews and Judaism. The denunciation ofthe Pharisees and the supposed expulsion of Jews from the covenantal relationship because of their murder of the Messiah were two such commonplace themes. The Fisher study showed some improvement in these areas in light of the II Vatican Council's statement on the Church and the Jewish People, but also that problems remain. Dr. Philip Cunningham, who teaches at Notre Dame College in Manchester, New Hampshire and who is active in the Christian-Jewish dialogue, has moved the textbook analysis process into the present day. Based in large measure on his doctoral dissertation at Boston College, Education for Shalom offers a comprehensive overview of current Catholic educational materials based on the content analysis methodology developed for the prior studies. Cunningham begins his analysis with three chapters which present in succinct fashion "the onset and demise of the Christian anti-Jewish tradition." His overview is excellent and will prove especially valuable reading for those not well versed in the history of Catholic-Jewish relations and recent developments since the II Vatican 162 SHOFAR Spring 1999 VoL 17, No.3 Council. Occasional tables highlight the principal points in a subject area (e.g., elements of the patristic anti-Jewish theology) and are well done. Cunningham points to the strengths, as well as the inconsistencies, in various post-Vatican documents on the Jewish question. His primary purpose in presenting this overview of the last quartercentury of Catholic theology on Jews and Judaism is to provide a context for his analysis of the content of Catholic textbooks. In Part Two ofthe volume (Chapters 2-7) Cunningham presents the analysis based on his dissertation research. The opening two chapters of the second section give a brief history of previous studies by Thering, Olsen, Fisher, and others as well as the methodology used in his analysis. Cunningham then offers a concrete evaluation of the textbooks by period and theme. He cites a number of examples from several representative texts. He ends with a series of personal reflections and recommendations. His language is technical to a significant degree, yet presented in a way that the average reader can understand. While Cunningham fmds a "comfortably" positive general imbalance (+.495) in the primary school materials, certain thematic categories ("Jesus and the Jews," "the Pharisees," "the Crucifixion," and the "Relationship Between the Covenants") still remain somewhat troublesome. These were the same problem areas identifi~d in the earlier Thering and Fisher studies. The secondary school texts also showed an overall positive imbalance (+.601) but were marked as well by deficiencies in the same topical areas as the primary school texts. They were roughly identical in most areas with the 1976 Fisher analysis, with the exception of much greater positive use of the Hebrew Scriptures. In terms of specific issues Cunningham cites references to the New Testament...