The Catholic Church and the Jewish People: Recent Reflections from Rome

9. Jewish-Christian Relations: A Conciliar Discovery and Its Methodological Consequences for Dogmatic Theology

9. Jewish-Christian Relations: A Conciliar Discovery and Its Methodological Consequences for Dogmatic Theology Peter Hünermann 1. The Main Issues The struggle of the Secretariat for Christian Unity under Cardinal Bea to promulgate the declaration De Judaeis, the successful climax of which was the publication of the conciliar document Nostra Aetate, has produced extremely rich fruits. The brief and yet balanced pronouncements of the Second Vatican Council not only had a vast positive resonance and were often referenced by a variety of exegetical and theological publications, but they also opened the way to a lively dialogue between the Church and Judaism.1 The popes themselves, especially Pope John Paul II, the Roman dicasteries, the episcopal conferences, and also individual bishops have addressed this topic and have promoted a critical revision of ecclesiastical history and a deeper theological reflection. The document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (May 24, 2001) is certainly one of the most important of the studies that proceed in this direction and a paradigmatic example of these developments. A close reading of article 4 of Nostra Aetate signals the necessity of correcting a series of propositions that were part of our theological tradition. Note these excerpts: 114 / Peter Hünermann Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ—Abraham’s sons according to faith (Gal. 3:7)—are included in the same Patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles (Rom. 11:17–24). Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles, making both one in Himself (Eph. 2:14–16). . . . As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation (Lk. 19:42), nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading (Rom. 11:28). Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues—such is the witness of the Apostle.2 In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and ‘‘serve him shoulder to shoulder’’ (Soph. 3:9).3 . . . True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ (Jn. 19:6); still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ. Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s Jewish-Christian Relations / 115 spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism , directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.4 From these passages of the declaration, we can derive three fundamental dogmatic propositions: (1) the beginning of the faith and of the election of the Church of Christ is found in the patriarchs, in Moses, and in the prophets, and that the Exodus prefigures the salvation of the Church; (2) the gentiles who belong to the Church are grafted onto the good olive tree like a wild shoot; and (3) despite the rejection of the Gospel by many Jews, God’s gifts...