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New Christians? New Jews?
David Novak
FORUM - Christian Culture Foundation
ZNAK
www.forum-znak.org.pl
June 2002
History has led to a sea
change in Christian attitude toward Jews, and this has
led to a radical Jewish response
One of the best kept secrets of the past half century,
at least for many people, is the radically changed relationship
that has been growing between Christians and Jews in
North America and Europe. The publication of Dabru Emet,
a Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity, on
Sept. 10, shows how seriously that radically changed
relationship has been taken by the four Jewish theologians
(of which I am one) who worked for almost five years
to draft the statement, and for the 150 or so Jewish
religious leaders who initially signed it. So, what
is new about many Christians that some Jews think a
Jewish response is required? And, why has the statement
already elicited criticism from some other Jews, although
praise from others?
Like any significant public statement, Dabru Emet (from
the Biblical phrase "speak the truth to one another"
in Zechariah 8:16) is a response to something important.
As the preamble to the statement makes clear, significant
Christian Churches, both Roman Catholic and Protestant,
have "expressed remorse about Christian mistreatment
of Jews and Judaism." For most of the past 2,000
years, Christian teaching about Judaism has characterized
it as a religion that should have given way to Christianity
as its logical successor, and that the Jews are, therefore,
a great impediment to God's salvation of the world.
Many Christians have believed the covenant between God
and the Jewish people, although rooted in the Old Testament
and never refuted by the New Testament, was broken when
the vast majority of the Jews refused to accept Jesus
of Nazareth as the Messiah, let alone as the son of
God. Needless to say, during much of the time Jews and
Christians have shared, Jews have regarded Christianity
as a teaching it must protect itself from and continually
argue against. Indeed, it seemed Christians had a much
bigger problem with Jews than Jews had with them, since
Christians wanted to absorb the Jews into their Christian
identity, whereas we Jews simply wanted Christians to
let us retain our own distinct identity. Perhaps that
is why even today some secularized Jews seem to think
not being a Christian is all they need to do to retain
a Jewish identity, as if Judaism were nothing but the
antithesis of Christianity.
Nevertheless, much of the new Christian teaching about
Judaism sees this type of Christian theology as not
only wrong but dangerous, indeed just as dangerous for
Christians as it obviously has been for Jews. As the
great Christian theologian, Karl Barth, powerfully argued:
If God broke His promise never to nullify His covenant
with the Jews, how can the Church believe that God will
not do the same thing to Christians? This view has led
many Christians to realize that Christian denigration
of Jews and Judaism, what is called "the teaching
of contempt," is not only wrong by the criteria
of democratic tolerance of religious diversity, but
that it is even more wrong by the criteria of Christian
faith itself.
It is inevitable that Jews had to respond to this important
new development, one that has seen theory become translated
into beneficial action by many Christians. The decline
of anti-Semitism among most Christians is solid evidence
for that. It would be rather odd if Jews only reacted
to negative threats from outside but remained silent
when improvement from outside is obvious, even though
never complete. (What human effort ever is?) Furthermore,
since the change in Christian teaching has been so explicitly
theological, the Jewish response to it has to be theological
too, or else it would appear religiously shallow by
comparison. The statement demonstrates that Judaism
is concerned with belief and not just practice, and
that theology, which is the formulation of belief, is
very much part of the Jewish tradition. Without the
tradition of Jewish theology, Jews would have nothing
authentically Jewish to say to Christians as Christians.
Jewish-Christian communication could, then, only be
conducted in the type of secularist atmosphere where
Jews and Christians (and all other religious believers)
have to pretend they have no faith at all, or that their
faith is publicly irrelevant.
What has happened in history that led to this sea change
in Christian attitudes, and which has led to this radical
Jewish response? The answer to this question is the
same as the answer to the question of why the statement
has already drawn public criticism from some Jews. In
one word: the Holocaust. The Holocaust not only has
caused Jews to rethink Judaism, it also has caused Christians
to rethink Christianity. It is obvious why this has
been the case with the Jews, but why has it been the
case with the Christians? First, there is the fact,
which the statement must acknowledge, that traditional
Christian anti-Judaism was effectively used by Nazi
ideology in its murderous results. However, most Christians
do not consider themselves Nazis, abhor murder, and
genuinely want to eliminate the type of Christian teaching
that could be so easily used by Nazis or any other murderers.
Second, there is also the fact Nazi ideology was anti-Christian,
that genuine Christians were already being killed along
with Jews, and that Christianity itself was marked for
elimination had the Nazis been victorious. Jews must
recognize, therefore, that this Christian reaction to
the Holocaust is an act of true repentance to be applauded
and encouraged. It is a Christian recognition that the
ultimate object of Nazi hatred was the God of Israel,
the God of the Bible whom both Jews and Christians serve.
But this is precisely the point of greatest controversy,
since despite the Christian contribution to Nazi ideology,
the statement says "Nazism is not a Christian phenomenon,"
and that "Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome
of Christianity." In other words, authentic Christians,
despite their theological difference with the Jews,
have been fully able to resist Nazism and thus rediscover
their commonality with the Jews and feel a new solidarity
with us. As such, Christians as Christians do not have
to be enemies of the Jews. Because of that assertion
(which we knew would be controversial), some Jews think
the statement is too easy on Christians and Christianity.
However, if one thinks Christianity is the cause of
Nazism, then Christians have the horrible choice of
either becoming enemies of the Jews or renouncing Christianity.
We, the authors of the statement, do not believe this
is true. We believe Christians can be fully faithful
to Christianity and recognize its significant commonalities
with Judaism, recognize Judaism's difference from Christianity,
and do so without attempting in any way to eliminate
the Jews and Judaism along with us. When that is the
case, Jews can very much lessen our historically justifiable
fear of Christians. By so doing we can then re-emphasize
that tradition of Jewish thinking that sees Christianity
as a valid religious option for non-Jews, which Jews
can in
truth respect. (The volume "Christianity in Jewish
Terms" published in conjunction with the statement,
spells out in detail what that Jewish tradition is.)
That is why the statement insists Christians worship
the same God as do the Jews (differently, to be sure),
derive their authority from the Hebrew Bible (reading
it differently, to be sure), and that many Christians
have understood the valid attachment of the Jewish people
to the land of Israel (the land promised to us in the
Hebrew Bible, which is the Christians' Old Testament).
Furthermore, not only do we believe this new, improved
relationship will not encourage assimilation or conversion
out of Judaism, but we believe when Jews understand
both what we have in common with and what differentiates
us from Christians and Christianity, this will lead
to a more intelligent understanding by Jews of what
it means to be a Jew in today's world, and a renewed
commitment to remain fully Jewish in it. Today's world
is one in which we Jews are a significant part, like
it or not.
The nomination of Senator Joseph Lieberman for the vice-presidency
of the United States has been coincidental with the
publication of our statement. We didn't plan it that
way, but it certainly helps. That is because Senator
Lieberman, an explicitly believing and practising religious
Jew, has made his Judaism a matter of public identification,
and he has been explicit in his respect for Christianity,
the majority religion in the United States. We think
that without the changed climate of Christian opinion
to which our statement responds, Senator Lieberman would
not be able to be what he is in public, and that being
what he is would not have been so well received by so
many authentic Christians.
Like any public statement, ours invites the responses
of others, both Jews and Christians, both positive and
negative. Indeed, our statement reflects a conversation
already in progress.
David Novak holds the J. Richard
and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies at the University
of Toronto
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