Abstract
From a historical point of view, the new understanding of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people was the catalyst for the Second Vatican Council to elaborate a declaration on the non-Christian religions. This is not a mere accident. The Jewish-Christian relationship does, even from a systematic point of view, play a paradigmatic, critical and corrective function for a Christian theology of religions. It has a character sui generis, for Judaism constitutes the Other within Christian self-identity. The Jewish-Christian relationship helps to formulate the meaning of the particular in the discussion of the universal Christian claim of truth and salvation when facing other religions. Furthermore, it prevents a theology of religion from sliding into abstract, non-historical and purely speculative definitions. Normally, Christology and especially the theology of Incarnation guarantees it, but they have to be linked themselves back to the messianic idea of Judaism and the history of salvation where the Church itself recognizes the unrevoked covenant between God and Israel. Only a theology of religions that recognizes the lasting challenge of the Jewish faith for Christian identity will have overcome anti-Judaism at its roots.
Highlights
It is common knowledge that at the start of the Second Vatican Council no separate document on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions was envisioned
The first draft mainly dealt with the relationship between the Church and Judaism from the perspective of the history of salvation, both systematically and with special attention to the alleged responsibility of the Jewish people for the death of Christ
The statement on Judaism is seen as the “heart”[4] of the declaration, which assesses the human searching for religious truth and values the rays of Truth which enlightens all people, including in Hinduism and Buddhism
Summary
It is common knowledge that at the start of the Second Vatican Council no separate document on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions was envisioned. After the horror of the Shoah and the unacceptable “teaching of contempt” (Jules Isaac) that had dominated the Christian-Jewish relationship for centuries, Pope John XXIII made it his personal quest to abolish the existing negative image of the Jewish people and to emphasize their theological importance for the Church It was Cardinal Bea, head of the newly formed Secretariat for Christian Unity, who was entrusted with this task.[1]. The Bishops of Asia, considered the “Jewish decree” to be a strictly European problem in order to deal with that continent’s disastrous history They demanded that the Council define the Church’s relationship to the Asian religions. It was accepted by the Council Fathers on October 28, 1965 by a vote of 2221 to 88
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