Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II by Gavin D'Costa

Abstract

Reviewed by: Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II by Gavin D'Costa Lawrence E. Frizzell gavin d'costa, Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). Pp. 240. €80. The potential for the impact of biblical scholarship on the modern world is profound and wide-ranging. Since the 1950s the collaboration among scholars of various religious heritages has been enriching in many ways. This has included a fruitful contribution by Jewish experts on the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation, moving from the varied literature of the Second Temple period to the rabbinic era and beyond. Now theologians are reviewing [End Page 132] the impact of these insights on the way the Christian message intersects with the Jewish people and their heritage. The book under review tackles a number of issues that flow from the Second Vatican Council's application of biblical studies to the Catholic faith with an impact on contemporary Catholic–Jewish relations. The four Constitutions of the Second Vatican Council laid the foundation for the spiritual life and practices of Catholics. From these flowed the Decrees and Declarations regarding Christian ecumenism and interreligious relations. All the texts are addressed to Catholics, but many other people are affected by the integration of the council's teachings into the worship and moral life of Catholics. The interpretation of the sacred Scriptures in scholarly settings has an impact on the prayer and practices of the faithful. In many areas the council documents lay a foundation for guiding Catholics into a deeper appreciation of the church's teaching. Gavin D'Costa has explored the developments of the council's insights, especially the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) and the Declaration on the Church's Relation to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate). He draws attention to the series of documents that interpret and apply Nostra aetate to the teaching of Catholic doctrine. He studies these texts in detail, along with papal encyclicals, statements, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), and the Pontifical Biblical Commission's The Jewish People and Its Holy Scripture in the Christian Bible (2001). D'Costa's conclusions are summarized as follows: "The full authority of the magisterium stands behind the biblical teaching that the covenant with biblical Israel, God's people, is irrevocable (Romans 11:29)." This prepares for a doctrinal implication: "The cultic religious rituals of Rabbinic Judaism are alive and lifegiving, not dead and deadening," as was taught by Augustine and Aquinas (p. 188). The land is central to the covenantal promises to Israel. D'C. favors "a minimalist Catholic Zionism." This means that the founding of the State of Israel may be the working of God in history in relation to God's chosen people. However, this position "cannot underwrite any form of Israel government or political messianism . . . nor can it keep quiet about the just cause of a Palestinian homeland" (p. 189). The question of mission to the Jewish people is placed within "the necessity of witness to all those who do not know Jesus Christ and his Church. This witness cannot compromise the freedom of religion or be coercive in any manner. . . . [The] emerging Jewish Catholic ecclesia has a special witness to offer; it is possible to follow Yeshua and remain a Jew and be a Catholic . . . within the Catholic Church that is qualitatively made up of "the church of the circumcision and the church of the gentiles" (p. 7) (see Gal 2:7). D'Costa presents the magisterial authority for his conclusions flowing from the council in developments grounded in the teachings of the last three popes and three written statements of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in 1974, 1985, and 2015. D'C. studies these documents and that of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. "They point to a trajectory that is supported by a range of existing magisterial teachings. They are advanced in this book as strong candidates for how the Church might develop its doctrinal teachings about God's Jewish people, both in their reaction to such theologies and more importantly from their faithful following of God's demands. In this process, the Church is also slowly discovering...