20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Ecumenism

Ecum.enism. Geoffrey Wigoder W hereas the revision of Christian attitude~ toward Jews and Judaism dates back only to the end of World War II, the Jews' reconsideration of Christianity has been proceeding for two centuries, sparked by the emancipation, when Jews for the first time could examine Christianity in an atmosphere of free inquiry unimpeded by the artificial external pressures previously exerted. To be sure, Jews continued to respond to an internal pressure to demonstrate to the emancipated Jew the superiority of Judaism, with the consequence that most enlightened Jewish thinkers of the nineteenth century were still largely concerned with polemic, albeit of a refined nature, in their attitudes toward Christianity. New positions were being taken, however. EchOing Maimonides' statement that Jesus and Mohammed helped to prepare the way for the Messiah (MT Hil. Melakhim 9, 4), Samuel Hirsch stated that Christianity had brought ethics and monotheism to the pagan world,l and Solomon Formstecher characterized Christianity and Islam as "the northern and southern missions of Judaism to the pagan world.,,2 The main center of this new 148 ECUMENISM thinking was to be found in Protestant environments, especially Germany, where Hermann Cohen found a deep affinity between Judaism and Christianity and where later, in the twentieth century, Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber sought to construct a new relationship without polemic. Rosenzweig and Buber felt that Judaism should recognize in Christianity a path to God, while demanding a reciprocal recognition from Christianity. New Christian perceptions emerged only after World War II. The first step came with the realization that the traditional Christian teaching of contempt had created the atmosphere in which a Holocaust was possible. This led to a critical reexamination of doctrines and attitudes toward Jews and Judaism. Generalizations about "Christian" or "Jewish" views are misleading because of the pluralistic composition of both communities. Within Christendom the centristic structure of the Catholic church has facilitated the development of a comparatively unified position regarding Judaism and the Jews, initially expressed in the Nostra Aetate Declaration (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions) issued at the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965 and elaborated in the interpretative guidelines published in 1975. Abandoning the traditional teaching concerning the continuing responSibility of the entire Jewish people for the death of Jesus, the Catholic church has undertaken the expunging of anti-Jewish sentiments and stereotypes from Catholic prayers, catechetical instruction, and textbooks; the cessation of direct missions to Jews; the condemnation of anti-Semitism; and the growth of more constructive Jewish-Catholic relations throughout the world. The late Israeli historian Uriel Tal has even suggested that the Catholic church's renewed confrontation with mankind's terrestrial condition has opened up common grounds of complementarity with the Jewish concepts of Torah and halakhah.3 A third Vatican document, entitled "Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church," was issued in 1985. While stressing the Jewishness of Jesus, the· Jewish roots of Christianity, and the positive contributions of the Pharisees, it retained many of the church teachings that have proved objectionable to Jews down the ages. Although quoting with approval John Paul Irs statement calling Jews "the people of God of the Old Covenant which has never been revoked," the document affirms that Judaism cannot be seen as a way to salvation (which is reached only through Jesus), that the Jews were chosen to prepare the coming of Christ, and that the Hebrew Bible should be interpreted through typology, that is, that its events and personalities are to be seen in the light of the New Testament ("The Exodus, for example, rep- ECUMENISM 149 resents an experience of salvation and liberation that is not complete in itself but ... accomplished in Christ"). Jhus, despite the progress made in historical understanding and existential relations, this reassertion of the Catholic church's basic triumphalism pointed up the problematics of theological dialogue. In a series of statements since the Holocaust, all major Protestant churches have taken stands opposing anti-Semitism and declaring their readiness to be active in combating its manifestations. The existence of residual theological anti-Semitism, however, remains a matter of contention . Strong expression is still given in certain Protestant circles to the belief in the displacement of the Jews and the discontinuity of their role in the divine scheme as a result of their rejection of...