Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS:
THE CONTEMPORARY DIALOGUE
JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI
The age of proselytizing is over; the age of dialogue has
begun between Jews and Christians.
A Jewish leader in the contemporary interreligious dialogue, Rabbi
Henry Siegman of the American Jewish Congress, once termed the
church-synagogue relationship "asymmetrical." What he meant was
that Jews and Christians frequently come to mutual sharing today with
different goals and different histories. This needs to be understood by
both sides if the dialogue is to be meaningfully sustained.
Jews, as a minority, more often than not look to the dialogue as a
way of ensuring the security of the people Israel throughout the
world. Eradication of the vestiges of classical anti-Semitism from
Christian education and liturgy naturally becomes a prime component
of this goal. Generally speaking, spiritual and theological
enrichment has not been very high on the Jewish agenda. Christians
on the other hand are usually led to the dialogue from a twofold
motivation. First, there is the genuine desire to overcome the brutal
legacy of Christian anti-Semitism which, while not the sole instigating
cause of Naziism, certainly was its indispensable seedbed. Allied to
this goal is the desire to improve concrete relations between church
and synagogue today, in part to forge coalitions on other joint social
objectives. But just as vital is the realization that a proper
understanding of Judaism—biblical, Second Temple, and postbiblical—is
absolutely crucial to the full articulation of the basic Christian
message.
John T. Pawlikowski, O.S.M., is professor of theology at the Catholic Theological Union in
Chicago. His books include The Challenge of the Holocaust for Christian Theology (1978) and
Christ in the Light of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue (1982). Hispanic readers will be interested in
his article on the Jewish roots of Christianity and their implication for dialogue, "Nuestras
Raices Judias," available from the author. Pawlikowski has conducted workshops in
business ethics for corporate officials, has been a consultant to the U.S. Catholic Conference
on energy questions, and has been involved in politics and ethical questions in Poland,
Northern Ireland, and South Africa.
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