Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS
the elimination of people the Nazis were convinced had no further
role to play in the future development of humanity, First of all, this
meant the Jews who were regarded as "vermin." But it also included
the Gypsies, Slavs (especially the Poles), gay people, and the
physically/mentally incapacitated. This plan was made possible by the
coming together of modern technology and bureaucracy and
depended in part at least on ideas generated by some of the giants of
modern Western thought. It also succeeded only because of the
cooperation extended by some of the best minds in Germany,
churchpeople included. It systematically reduced masses of people to
numbers, to nonhuman products whose remains could be used for
research and profit.
The final area for consideration is the theological. It is a very difficult
and sensitive one. For what seems necessary is a significant
restatement of Christian self-identity relative to Judaism. Traditionally
Christianity has expressed the meaning of the Christ-event in
terms of Jewish displacement. Jews were left at the starting gate after
their failure to acknowledge Christ. The theological challenge before
the church today is to express in a meaningful way the conclusion
reached by Paul in Romans that the Jewish covenant remains valid
after the Christ-event while retaining the unique revelation to be
found in the Incarnation. Put another way, how can Christian
doctrine create authentic theological space for Judaism? The answer
we give here will never be in complete harmony with Jewish
self-expression. Jews and Christians have some basic differences in
faith perception. But especially in light of Auschwitz we have an
obligation, as Jurgen Moltmann has reminded us, to search for ways
of eliminating our traditional displacement theology of Judaism. I
The most promising theological avenue to explore is that
of seeing Judaism and Christianity as two distinctive
religions, each with a unique faith despite their historic
links.
have undertaken this effort in my volume Christ in Light of the
Christian-Jewish Dialogue. Paul van Buren is at work on a multivolume
effort along these lines. Other Christian scholars are working on
pieces of a new Jewish-Christian relational model for theology. The
effort, still very much in its infancy, must continue.
35