A Legacy of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue: The Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lectures chronicles the lecture series about faith, culture, and interreligious dialogue. Each lecture is written by some of the world's leading experts in the field of Catholic-Jewish relations.
In this timely study Gavin D'Costa explores Roman Catholic doctrines after the Second Vatican Council regarding the Jewish people (1965 - 2015). It establishes the emergence of the teaching that God's covenant with the Jewish people is irrevocable. What does this mean for Catholics regarding Jewish religious rituals, the land, and mission? Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II establishes that the Catholic Church has a new teaching about the Jewish people: the covenant made with God is irrevocable. D'Costa faces head-on three important issues arising from the new teaching. First, previous Catholic teachings seem to claim Jewish rituals are invalid. He argues this is not the case. Earlier teachings allow us positive insights into the modern question. Second, a nuanced case for Catholic minimalist Zionism is advanced, without detriment to the Palestinian cause. This is in keeping with Catholic readings of scripture and the development of the Holy See's attitude to the State of Israel. Third, the painful question of mission is explored. D'Costa shows the new approach safeguards Jewish identity and allows for the possibility of successful witness by Hebrew Catholics who retain their Jewish identity and religious life.
This book is the dogmatic sequel to Levering's Engaging the Doctrine of Marriage, in which he argued that God's purpose in creating the cosmos is the eschatological marriage of God and his people.. God sets this marriage into motion through his covenantal election of a particular people, the people of Israel. Central to this people's relationship with the Creator God are their Scriptures, exodus, Torah, Temple, land, and Davidic kingship. As a Christian Israelology, this book devotes a chapter to each of these topics, investigating their theological significance both in light of ongoing Judaism and in light of Christian Scripture (Old and New Testaments) and Christian theology. The book makes a significant contribution to charting a path forward for Jewish-Christian dialogue from the perspective of post-Vatican II Catholicism.
A rare book that combines searing passion with a subject that has affected all of our lives. "Chicago Tribune" Novelist, cultural critic, and former priest James Carroll marries history with memoir as he maps the two-thousand-year course of the Church s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has sparked in his own life. Fascinating, brave, and sometimes infuriating ("Time"), this dark history is more than a chronicle of religion. It is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture to create a deeply felt work ("San Francisco Chronicle") as Carroll wrangles with centuries of strife and tragedy to reach a courageous and affecting reckoning with difficult truths."
The amazing, historic journey of Jews and Christians coming together. In this book Philip Cunningham traces the remarkable developments in Catholic-Jewish relations over the last fifty years. Centuries of antipathy and suspicion, Cunningham says, have largely given way to a new, mutually enriching relationship between the two traditions of Judaism and Catholicism. A specialist in Christian-Jewish relations, Cunningham recounts the amazing, historic journey of Jews and Christians coming together in light of both Scripture and theology, covering the period from Vatican II up to the present day. After fifty years of significant dialogue, Cunningham suggests, Catholics and Jews are now on the threshold of building true shalom between their two communities, experiencing the Holy One anew in each other's distinctive and edifying ways of walking with God.
An indispensable book on the important themes present in John Paul II's theology. Pope Benedict XVI has written: "I consider it my essential and personal mission not so much to produce many new documents but to see to it that John Paul's documents are assimilated, because they are a very rich treasure, the authentic interpretation of Vatican II." This volume responds to that challenge in helping readers and students to understand the important themes in John Paul II's theology, which is crucial because his influence is already as great as that of almost any other Pope, and his teachings and writings need to be studied carefully by Christians of all denominations. John Paul II's writings were prolific, covering topics as important as ethics, politics, theology, and comparative religion as well as a number of philosophical works published before he became Pope.
What is the significance of the body? What might phenomenology contribute to a theological account of the body? And what is gained by prolonging the overlooked dialogue between St. John Paul II and Emmanuel Levinas? Nigel Zimmermann answers these questions through the agreements and the tensions between two of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. John Paul II, the Polish pope, philosopher, and theologian, and Emmanuel Levinas, the French-Jewish philosopher of Lithuanian heritage, were provocative thinkers who courageously faced and challenged the assumptions of their age. Both held the human person in high regard and did their thinking with constant reference to God and to theological language. Zimmermann does not shirk from the challenges of each thinker and does not hide their differences. However, he shows how they bequeath a legacy regarding the body that we would overlook at significant ethical peril. We are called, Zimmermann argues, to face the other. In this moment God refuses a banal marginalisation and our call to responsibility for the other person is issued in their disarming vulnerability. In the body, philosophy, theology, and ethics converge to call us to glory, even in the paradox of lowly suffering.
Twenty-Five Element International Scholars show how roman catholic theology has grappled with religious pluralism. Catholic Engagement with World Religions outlines, clarifies, and defends official Roman Catholic teaching on the relationship between Christianity and other religious traditions in light of the Catholic belief that "We must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery".(Gaudium et Spes, 22) Part I studies the history of these issues while Part II examines their theological framing. Part III addresses Christianity and other religions since Vatican U. Part IV deals specifically with Judaism, Confucianism, Hinduism and Islam as these religions see themselves in relation to Christianity. A final chapter by Bishop Michael Fitzgerald offers a theological reflection on the foundations of interreligious dialogue today. For scholars, students, and practitioners of interreligious encounter, Catholic Engagement with World Religions is necessary and absorbing reading. Karl J. Becker, S.J., and Ilaria Morali teach at the Gregorian University in Rome.