Christians & Jews in Dialogue: Learning in the Presence of the Other

By Mary C. Boys, Sara S. Lee and Dorothy C. Bass

Discover the Power of Dialogue to Heal Religious Division

How can members of different faith traditions approach each other with openness and respect? How can they confront the painful conflicts in their history and overcome theological misconceptions? For more than twenty years, Professors Mary C. Boys and Sara S. Lee have explored ways that Catholics and Jews might overcome mistrust and misunderstandings in order to promote commitment to religious pluralism.

At its best, interreligious dialogue entails not simply learning about the other from the safety of one’s own faith community, but rather engaging in specific learning activities with members of the other faith—learning in the presence of the other. Drawing upon examples from their own experience, Boys and Lee lay out a framework for engaging the religious other in depth. With vision and insight, they discuss ways of fostering relationships among participants and with key texts, beliefs and practices of the other’s tradition.

In this groundbreaking resource, they offer a guide for members of any faith tradition who want to move beyond the rhetoric of interfaith dialogue and into the demanding yet richly rewarding work of developing new understandings of the religious other—and of one’s own tradition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Jun 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781594734618

Mary C. Boys

Mary C. Boys' books include Jewish-Christian Dialogue: One Woman's Experience and Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding. She is the Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and chairs the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations.

Book preview

To those Jews and Christians who,

in studying in the presence of the other,

have also enriched us.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.  Jews and Christians: A Complicated Relationship

2.  Sara’s Story

3.  Mary’s Story

4.  Interreligious Teaching and Learning: The Experience

5.  Toward a Theory of Interreligious Teaching and Learning

6.  After Auschwitz: Conversations in a Krakow Park

7.  Jews, Christians, and the Land of Israel

8.  Participants Speak: Testimony to the Power of Interreligious Learning

Notes

Appendix 1 "Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity (2000)"

Appendix 2 A Sacred Obligation: Rethinking Christian Faith in Relation to Judaism and the Jewish People

Suggestions for Further Reading

Index

About the Authors

Copyright

Also Available

About SkyLight Paths

Foreword

The United States is today a country where many religious traditions flourish. Yet we, the people, have yet to determine how we shall come to terms with this exciting but potentially troubling reality. The question of how to be religious people in a pluralistic context is not only a constitutional and political one, after all. Our responses to this question also shape our sense of who we are as individuals, families, and communities.

In a pluralistic context where particularist religious commitments sometimes reflect past grievances or erupt in presentday conflict, it is not surprising that some people respond by toning down their religious identity and seeking refuge in relatively bland and private spiritualities. On the other hand, those who have experienced God’s presence in the practices of an enduring tradition find that response deeply unsatisfying. These more observant and believing ones sense how impoverished they, and humanity as a whole, would be without the rich and complex wisdom these traditions bear. And so, hoping to sustain them, some retreat into enclaves of the like-minded. Often they show tolerance toward those of different faith, but they never really get to know them or to appreciate their approach to the sacred. This ignorance can even keep them from recognizing some of the rich and distinctive gifts they receive from their own tradition.

Christians and Jews in Dialogue: Learning in the Presence of the Other offers a third alternative. In this important book, a knowledgeable and committed Jew and a knowledgeable and committed Catholic demonstrate that it is possible to approach one another’s tradition with understanding and respect. Indeed, they show that in doing so one may find one’s own particularity both expanded and enriched. Beyond this, moreover, they argue that the mature and ethical embrace of each tradition requires such mutual understanding and respect. These do not result simply from good will but rather from serious study undertaken in the context of honest and persistent interpersonal relationships.

Sara Lee and Mary Boys demonstrate here the transformative potential of excellent religious education. In an age when many educated people fear that religious difference will be the undoing of the world, these authors argue that religious education holds the key to reconciliation among those of different religious traditions. And at a time when many religious leaders seek to build fortresses of communal identity as defenses against religious pluralism, these authors see religious education as the surest path to a just, secure, and even joyful pluralism.

The textured particularism advocated by these two compassionate and committed women is, appropriately, particular to them and to their traditions. This book and the other work Sara and Mary have done together focus intently on Judaism and Catholicism and the painful history of the relationship between these two traditions. Early in the book, both women share moving religious autobiographies that offer powerful insights into the impact of early misconceptions of the other and the healing effects of growing knowledge of the other later in life. I deeply admire the commitment of both women to persevere in the path of interreligious learning in spite of the legacy of oppression and suspicion carried by Jewish heirs of their shared history and the legacy of shame inherited by Catholics. Their compassionate persistence even in the face of pain—their own and that of their students—has enabled them to invite many colearners into a more truthful understanding of the other and a more mature appropriation of their own religious legacy.

The dialogue between this Catholic and this Jew, then, is a particular one involving two traditions that have a specific, complex, and formative relationship with one another. Thus the book does not and cannot address how interreligious learning might serve the many other alienated traditions and communities that exist all over the world. This refusal to generalize is appropriate to Mary and Sara’s emphasis on the interpersonal and traditionspecific demands of interreligious learning. However, their account does make me long to see religious educators from other families of faith explore the potential of this approach. It also makes me long to see dialogue that takes seriously and addresses the deep antagonisms that exist within each tradition, including the Protestant Christianity where I make my religious home. But that is a task for another day and other educators.

I have had the privilege of participating in Sara and Mary’s work at several points along the way. In 1995, I attended a session of the Catholic-Jewish Colloquium, which gathered an impressive and committed group of Jewish and Catholic educators for sustained learning in the presence of the other, as this book’s subtitle puts it. What I saw there was educational teamwork of the highest order. The qualities that make Mary Boys and Sara Lee exceptionally gifted teachers were evident at every turn: both are deeply grounded in and knowledgeable of their own traditions, passionate about the well-being of the other’s religious community, and personally strong enough to listen with patience and discernment. Calling attention to their gifts, however, may deflect attention from the painstaking work they put into each educational encounter. The guidance on teaching they offer in chapter 5, which includes a summary of the kinds of questions they asked as they prepared for each colloquium meeting or other class or workshop, not only reports on their own practice but also provides immensely helpful advice for other educators. Those inspired by Sara and Mary’s example to attempt interreligious teaching and learning in their own context must take this seriously: to do this, you must commit yourself to very careful planning and preparation. Those who teach other subjects of deep personal and social importance should also heed this advice.

My second opportunity to participate in interreligious learning with Mary and Sara, as they report in chapter 7, came during our 1997 trip to Israel. Memories of the places we visited and the conversations we shared continue to shape how I hear certain biblical narratives and how I understand the historical significance of the Shoah. These memories also deepen the sorrow I feel each time I hear of violence in Jerusalem. I am immensely grateful to these two wise and generous women for welcoming me into their journey on that occasion and across the years.

Now this book also welcomes you, dear readers, into their remarkable journey. I commend it to you with confidence that the stories, methods, and challenges it conveys will deepen your understanding of what is at stake in efforts to address the hostility and ignorance that have too often divided Christians and Jews. More important, I commend it to you with hope that it will strengthen your commitment and enlarge your capacity to contribute to the healing of the world.

                                 Dorothy C. Bass

Valparaiso, Indiana

Acknowledgments

The process of writing brought to mind the many wonderful persons who have participated in our projects, and it is to them we dedicate this book.

We acknowledge grants from the Lilly Endowment and the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith that funded several of our projects. We are grateful also for support from the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, and for Mary’s sabbatical leave as a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology, granted by the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., and the Association of Theological Schools.

We thank colleagues who provided helpful comments on various chapters: Eva Fleischner; Jill Morehouse Lum; Michael McGarry, C.S.P.; Stephanie Ruskay; Michelle Lynn-Sachs; Lesley A. Sacouman, S.N.J.M.; and Kathleen Talvacchia. We also thank Beth Nichols for interviewing selected participants in our various projects and Rachel A. Bundang for helping to ready the manuscript for the publisher. We are indebted to the generosity of Dorothy Bass in writing the foreword.

The professional editing skills of Barbara King Lord were invaluable in blending and refining our voices. Her care and expertise have contributed immeasurably to this book, and we are most grateful.

Finally, we thank our families, friends, and colleagues for their support.

INTRODUCTION

This is the story of two educators, one a Jew (Sara Lee) and the other a Catholic nun (Mary Boys), who for twenty years have designed and led projects in interreligious learning as a means of reconciliation between their traditions. This is a story of friendship that enabled candid conversations across boundaries of religious difference and sustained mutual trust even when confronting painful issues. And this is the story of the power of education in healing religious division.

The story begins with our conviction that religions must become a catalyst in reducing the world’s conflicts. We focus especially on our own Jewish and Catholic Christian traditions in which the tragic relationship of the past now enjoys the possibility of a new bond. Then in chapters 2 and 3, we tell something of our own stories, sharing a bit of what has formed us and the personal impact of our involvements in Christian-Jewish dialogue. In chapter 4 we describe our shared projects, and in chapter 5 we analyze the educational thinking that shaped those projects. Chapter 6 looks at the Holocaust through the lens of our trip to Auschwitz in 2004, and chapter 7 examines the complexities of the Land of Israel in light of our journey there in 1997. We offer a brief concluding word in chapter 8 through the testimony of some who took part in our projects.

A word on how we have coordinated the two voices of this book: In some chapters, one of us has done the initial draft, and then we have reviewed it together to produce the final version. Those chapters are written in the first person plural. In other chapters, however, our voices alternate, using first person singular. We have also reviewed these chapters together. Each of our biographical chapters is written exclusively in our own voice.

Christians and Jews in Dialogue: Learning in the Presence of the Other flows out of years of conversation. We hope that in entering into our conversation, readers will learn not only about the potential of interreligious learning but also the hope it engenders.

1

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS:

A COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP

There can be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There can be no peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions. There can be no dialogue between the religions without research into theological foundations.¹

A neighborhood stroll, especially in large urban areas such as Los Angeles and New York City, can be an eye-opening experience, given the myriad houses of worship. Traditional and nontraditional, these sacred places lining the streets testify that more religions are practiced in the United States than in any other country in the world.² More important, they represent the richness of religious diversity, always one of the world’s treasures, and now, thanks to mass global communication, one that is more and more widely realized.

But recognition of difference constitutes neither understanding nor acceptance. In far too many cases, religious difference fuels conflict. Violence in the name of religion continues to scar many parts of the world, whether between Hindus and Muslims in India, Orthodox Serbs and Muslims in the Balkans, or Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. In 2005–2006, twelve cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad appearing in a small Danish paper, Jyllands-Posten, ignited a massive controversy that led to violent protests from Nigeria to the Middle East. In France and Belgium, right-wing Christian groups associated with the Identity Bloc have organized soup kitchens that serve only soups made with pork products—thereby excluding Muslims and Jews. One of the leaders of a Paris soup-kitchen group says, Our freedom in France is being threatened. If we prefer European civilization and Christian culture, that’s our choice.³

Religion alone is not the cause of such violence, but, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says, it forms the fault-line along which sides divide, thereby intensifying conflict rather than lessening it.⁴ Religion is but a component—albeit a significant one—of the struggles we humans have in living respectfully with difference. When combined with factors such as rage, racism, xenophobia, or nationalism, religion is dangerous.

Rabbi Sacks asks in an earlier work whether religions are ready for the greatest challenge they have ever faced, namely a world in which even local conflict can have global repercussions. In his view, the fate of the twenty-first century may turn on whether the world’s religions can make a space for those who are not its adherents, who sing a different song, hear a different music, tell a different story.⁵

Yet negative judgments about the religious other, however dangerous in our time, are not entirely surprising. Tolerance of religious diversity threatens what many of us were taught to believe. Often religious teaching itself provides a barrier to tolerance. Although we could give many examples, we will restrict ourselves to a word about our own traditions.

MAKING SPACE FOR RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE:

A CHALLENGE TO CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM

Although today the Catholic Church expresses considerable regard for other religions, such respect contrasts with earlier attitudes. The documents from the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) differ dramatically from earlier councils, such as the Council of Florence, which, in its 1442 Decree for the Copts, claimed that no one remaining outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews, heretics or schismatics, can become partakers of eternal life; but they will go to the ‘eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of their life they are received into it. This decree ends with the chilling statement, And no one can be saved, no matter how much alms he has given, even if he sheds his blood for the name of Christ, unless he remains in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.⁶ There was no space for those who were not church members.

In contrast, Vatican II refers to Jews as a people who remain most dear to God, and Muslims as those who also adore the one and merciful God. It speaks of those who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. They also can attain to salvation—a clear counterpoint to the Council of Florence.

This reversal of attitude in official Catholic teaching about other religions is still developing and debated. By no means have all the complex questions concerning the relationship of Catholic Christianity to other religions been resolved. No theological consensus exists with regard to adjudicating the truth claims of other religious traditions. Similarly, many of the socalled mainline Protestant churches reveal a new openness to the religious other without having solved the theological questions. The rich and abundant literature addressing these questions testifies to their depth and breadth.⁷

In other Christian circles, however, belief systems have little room for the religious other. For example, students, officers, faculty, and trustees at Patrick Henry College, a nondenominational Christian college in Purcellville, Virginia, must sign a ten-part Statement of Faith that includes the claims that salvation is exclusively found by faith alone in Jesus Christ and His shed blood and that hell is the place where all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.⁸ Such beliefs, in effect, reduce the world’s diverse religions to two categories: followers of Jesus Christ, who alone can be saved from the torment of hell, and nonbelievers, who have no hope of salvation.

Jewish views regarding other religions are similarly diverse, and equally difficult to summarize in a systematic fashion. Jewish textual sources contain contrasting and sometimes contradictory views. One point on which sources seem to agree is the belief that only Jews are obligated to observe Jewish law. Non-Jews are subject to the seven so-called Noahide commandments: prohibitions against murder, idolatry, incest, eating a limb torn from a living animal, blasphemy, theft, and the requirement to establish laws and courts.⁹ Observing these more universal commandments was viewed as what God required of non-Jews and deemed sufficient to warrant God’s blessing: The pious and virtuous of all nations can participate in eternal bliss.¹⁰ Yet this does not answer the question of how Jews are to regard other religious systems.

Traditionally, idolatry has been the primary category through which other religions are evaluated. In the Jewish view, idolatry is the most serious breach in any relationship to God. Born out of the Israelites’ experience with idol worshippers, and the necessity of making a clear distinction between such worship and monotheism, both biblical and rabbinic sources reject idolatry with vehemence. In fact, the tractate Avodah Zarah in the Mishnah and Talmud is devoted to the subject of idolatry.¹¹ They give considerable attention to laws governing the relationships between Jews and potential idol worshippers, forbidding, for example, contact with them or sharing of property. Jewish texts regard idolatry as more than an immoral practice that Judaism rejected. Worshipping any part of God’s creation was seen as making part of reality the whole of it, taking one of God’s creatures as God himself.¹² Thus, a number of medieval Jewish commentators held that Islam was not idolatrous, but that Christianity might be because of Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the claim that Jesus was divine. The overwhelming bias of Jewish jurisprudence in the past supports the judgment that Christian practices are at least potentially idolatrous.

Even the changes initiated by the Second Vatican Council did not change the view of some contemporary Jewish legal authorities in the most traditional wings of Orthodoxy. In 1967, a young Orthodox rabbi asked Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, recognized throughout the Jewish world for his scholarship as an interpreter and a posek (Hebrew for a decisor, one who is authorized to render legal decisions in response to questions of Jewish law), about participation in a Christian-Jewish dialogue. Rabbi Feinstein ruled that such participation would be a grave violation of the prohibition against appurtenances to idolatry.¹³ Rabbi Feinstein clearly stood with those medieval commentators who viewed Christianity as potentially idolatrous. He tried to generate support from another great scholar, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, a leader of Modern Orthodoxy, who had already rendered a more nuanced opinion on dialogue with Christians. Under his leadership, the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America had issued a statement in 1964 that endorsed Jewish-Christian dialogue on social and political issues of general human concern, but ruled that members were opposed to such dialogue on matters of faith.¹⁴

Although Orthodox communities do not represent the majority of Jews in the United States, it is startling to encounter such opposition to dialogue with Christians, especially after Vatican II. It is sobering to find the opposition grounded in a longstanding debate in Jewish tradition as to the status of Christianity in the context of what constitutes idolatry.