Judaism and Catholicism: The Common Ground of Social Justice

Brian Klug

doi:10.1177/0012580620974280

Abstract

This article is about the relationship between Judaism and Catholicism. Rather than proceeding on the plane of theology – comparing Catholicism and Judaism in terms of their conceptions of the divine – the author approaches the subject ‘from the ground up’, considering their convergence at the level of social action. Taking his cue from Margaret Archer, who has spoken about ‘the Church as a social movement’, he presents Judaism in a similar light, drawing on resources within Judaism that conduce towards promoting human rights and social justice. Moreover, writing as a Jewish Fellow at a Catholic Oxford college (St Benet’s Hall), he recounts certain experiences that illustrate how Jews and Catholics can come together on common ground.

Highlights

Keywords Judaism, Catholicism, slavery, social justice, human rights
This article is about the relationship between Judaism and Catholicism
‘The Church as a Social Movement’: this is just how, in a certain mood, I think of Judaism: Judaism as a social movement, a movement inspired by the words that Moses addresses to the Children of Israel when, lost in the wilderness, they look to him to point a direction: ‘Justice, justice shall you pursue’ (Deut. 16:20)

Summary

Introduction

Keywords Judaism, Catholicism, slavery, social justice, human rights (Bear in mind that Fr Henry is a monk of Ampleforth, a priest, editor of the New Jerusalem Bible and was, at the time, a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.) He wrote: ‘[M]y mother was Jewish .

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Conclusion