From Confrontation to Covenantal Partnership: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Orthodox Rabbinic Statement of “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven” ed. by Jehoschua Ahrens, Irving Greenberg and Eugene Korn (review)
- From Confrontation to Covenantal Partnership: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Orthodox Rabbinic Statement of “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven” ed. by Jehoschua Ahrens, Irving Greenberg and Eugene Korn
This book is an emotive and critical reflection by Jewish and Christian clergy and academics on To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven (TDW), which was published in December, 2015. The statement contains seven paragraphs (pp. 11–14) and represents the first collective Orthodox Jewish response on the nature of Jewish-Catholic (and, by extension, Jewish-Christian) relations since the Roman Catholic Church changed its official teachings on Jews and Judaism in the passage of Nostra aetate at Vatican II in 1965 and subsequent documents, including We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah (1998), a document ten years in the making in which for the first time the Catholic Church correctly used “Shoah” (catastrophic annihilation, for example, in Is. 10:3) instead of “Holocaust” (sacrificial burnt offering) to describe the Judeocide of World War II; The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (2001); and The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable (Rom. 11:29) (2015).
Among the innovative Catholic teachings and outreach to the Jews prevalent in these documents are the condemnation of nearly two millennia of Christian preaching tolerance regarding acts of Antisemitism and anti-Judaism; remembrance of the Shoah and the church’s blame and responsibility; rejection of Jewish deicide charges, supersessionism, and overt Jewish conversion outreach; [End Page 609] emphasis on the unique cultural and spiritual relationship between Jews and Christians in faith; and the acceptance of the sovereign State of Israel. The book’s title is meant to present the ways in which an international cadre of Orthodox rabbinical luminaries feel religiously obligated to respond to the Catholic Church’s acknowledgement that the Torah is the eternal Covenant between God and Israel (passage 3) and confirmation of “Israel’s unique role in sacred history and the ultimate world redemption” (para. 2).
The agenda of the editors and the invited contributors to probe the changing view of Jews and Judaism living with and among Christians for almost 2,000 years is distinguished by a dual accomplishment. First, it provides extensive critical discussion of significant text, context, and intertext that assesses historical, religious, cultural, psychological, and political issues primarily related to the Ashkenazic Jewish experience. Second, it shows the complexity of Jewish particularity (“a people that dwells alone; and not counting itself among the nations” [Num. 23:9]) and religious calling (for example, Is. 8–10) affected by alternatives to the traditional polarities of nationalist blood and soil, rootedness and uprootedness, exile, assimilation, conversion, alienation, and genocide. The book’s chapters do not dwell on the stereotypical Jewish Ashkenaz life (blood libel, Antisemitism, pogroms, expulsions) but suggest instead cultural exchange and heightened creativity for inclusive interfaith Jewish-Christian dialogue and respect; for example, original Jewish advocacy and authority are neither degraded nor rejected nor surpassed in current Catholic teaching.
The book’s chapters portray multiple Christian-Jewish views of each other, ethical monotheism, messianic tropes, and a host of selections and interpretations on debatable topics, such as race (Jewish ethnicity) and grace (Christian doctrine). The end effect is a reevaluation of Jewish and Christian identity, responsibility, and practice in togetherness to usher in the epochal messianic age of universal humanism and Shalom (Is. 2:4).
Introductions by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the preface by Karl Hermann Blickle speak supportively of modern Orthodox rabbis and Catholic and mainstream Protestant leaders who desire “to walk on a path of partnership and mutual esteem. In this do we not fulfill our common mandate to do the will of the Heavenly Father?” (Dolan, p. 29). Sentiments repeated and emphasized by Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat, Israel, accept past rabbinic appreciation by Maimonides, Judah...
