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Reviewed by:
  • Redeeming Our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians by Mary C. Boys
  • John T. Pawlikowski OSM
Redeeming Our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians. By Mary C. Boys. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2013. 387pp. $29.95.

Mary Boys, currently Dean at Union Theological Seminary in New York, has been a formidable voice in the Christian-Jewish dialogue for several decades. She has written extensively in this area over the years, especially in her major volume Has God Only One Blessing? (Paulist Press, 2000), in which she analyzed the historical realities and the present challenges regarding the Christian church’s approach to Jews and Judaism.

The present volume has a somewhat narrower focus – the sacred story of Christianity rooted in Jesus’ death on Calvary and how the Christian narrative regarding this sacred story has caused untold suffering and death for Jews throughout the ages. The first half of Redeeming Our Sacred Story rehearses the tragic history of Christianity’s theological approach to the Jewish People which left little or no significance for their continued existence (except perhaps in Augustine’s portrayal of the Jews as a “witness people” who survive in a sordid condition as a warning against rejecting Christ). This theology often had a negative social impact on Jews in European Christian societies. [End Page 80]

The second section of the volume looks at possible ways of reinterpreting the story of Jesus’ death in a way that would promote positive Christian-Jewish relations. She is realistic but also cutting-edge in her approach. She takes for granted that Calvary will remain a, perhaps the, central motif in Christian self-understanding. But she also warns against an over-focus on Calvary alone in Christian theology though she never pursues this point in a detailed way. So her thrust is primarily on the rescue of the classical Calvary narrative without developing a wider theology of the church’s relationship with the Jewish People that might, for example, be rooted far more in the Incarnation than on Calvary.

Within her singular focus on the Calvary story her work shows considerable creative promise. She opens the constructive section of the volume with a lengthy discussion of modern biblical scholarship which she believes is essential for any reworking of the Passion narrative into a basis for positive Christian-Jewish relations. An understanding of the widespread Roman practice of crucifixion along with the new understanding of the Apostle Paul’s strong, continuing relationship with his Jewish tradition which biblical scholars are now emphasizing are two key interpretative tools that can move the church away from certain classical interpretations of the Passion story which have proven to be so destructive for Christian-Jewish relations over the centuries.

Boys also places considerable emphasis on recent scholarship which highlights the complicated boundaries between the church and the Jewish community during the first several centuries of the common era. This new understanding makes initial interpretations of the Passion story appear far more than in the past “internal” disagreements rather than contentious disagreements between two totally separate religious communities, i.e., “Christians” and “Jews.”

Towards the conclusion of the volume, Boys explores the utilization of two classical spiritual constructs in Christianity in order to reduce, or even eliminate, interpretations of the Passion narrative that tend to leave Judaism in ruins. They are the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and the “Seven Last Words of Christ” ritual used in many Christian churches on Good Friday. She is the first person involved in the Christian-Jewish dialogue to try this approach.

I find her effort commendable and intriguing. There is no doubt in my mind that if it were to see widespread use, it would enhance a new constructive approach to the Passion story in comparison with the horrendous perspectives that have often dominated Christian spirituality in the past. But in the end, while very helpful, does her approach solve the use of super-sessionary theology? Not quite in my [End Page 81] judgment. I remain convinced we must develop a broader-based Christian theology for our relations with the Jewish People that would include the Incarnation, as well as Jesus...

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