A Christology symposium to revitalise Jewish-Christian dialogue

Thirty-two scholars gathered in Rome at the end of February, to engage in honest and open conversation about the state of Jewish-Christian dialogue in this 60^th year since the Catholic Church changed its official stance on its relationship with Jewish people and people of other faiths.

 

The event was the symposium “Christology in light of contemporary Jewish-Christian relations: new perspectives 60 years after Nostra Aetate?”, hosted by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Rome Campus, conceived by the Congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion (NDS), and realised in a partnership between the two. The aim of the symposium was to generate new learning informed by both Christian and Jewish scholarship.

In three days of intense dialogue and exchange, Christian and Jewish academics and practitioners from diverse backgrounds explored Christology – the branch of theology that concerns Jesus – and its place in Jewish-Christian dialogue today, especially considering the reality of supersessionism, the conviction held by some that the Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people.

After the symposium, educational resources will be developed to make the findings and questions that emerged from the conference more widely accessible.

 

The speakers and participants

NDS and ACU were honoured to welcome guests of exceptional calibre and diverse experience. Christian and Jewish Biblical scholars and theologians contributed their expertise and the dialogue had a distinctly global theological flavour.

As well as people from North and Central America, Europe and Australia, participants from Columbia, India, Jerusalem, Nigeria, Japan, the Philippines, Poland, Brazil and Romania brought fresh contextual and global perspectives to the forum.

“We were so grateful everyone accepted the invitation,” said Sr Thérèse Fitzgerald, one of the organisers, on the eve of the event. “Thanks to the inclusive participation, we’re hopeful that what comes out of the meeting may have a bearing on the broader Jewish-Christian scene.”

A safe space for dialogue

Crucial to unlocking the full potential of the event was creating a space conducive to listening to another person’s point of view with an attitude of curiosity rather than defence, and drilling deeper together around big ideas and issues, without attempting to solve them.

On the inaugural evening, which was open to the public, the keynote address was delivered by Prof. Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish scholar who has dedicated her life to New Testament studies in an attempt to remove antisemitic teachings. She set the tone when she rounded up with these words: “Today, we Jews and Christians come to the table not as elder and younger siblings, but perhaps as cousins, and so as equals. […] We come to listen, and to learn, and to argue, and maybe even to agree.”

The symposium themes and format

The symposium was designed to support dynamic conversation on a backdrop of academic presentations on Christological themes:

• The interpretative challenges inherent in reading the Scripture today.
• How to understand the theologies implicit and explicit in the texts of Romans, Matthew and John.
• Facing the supersessionism in New Testament texts and the Christology which developed from them.
• Dialogue on New Testament texts and the ethical implications of Christology.
• Ways to ensure that today’s renewed Jewish-Christian relationships have an impact across all the theological disciplines, unearthing issues that can be painful and stimulating new discussion.

For each topic, speakers from both the Christian and Jewish traditions initiated the conversations. Participants reflected in pairs and groups, then responded in plenary sessions and, finally, the speakers commented on the outcomes that were emerging.

The voice of the next generation

Dialogue underpinned the whole symposium. Yet in an unscheduled session towards the end of the symposium, three of the younger participants stretched the dialogue further, presenting a challenge to open the door to new and wider possibilities.

They talked about their experience in different world contexts, noting that the approaches to interfaith dialogue that currently prevail can be inadvertently marginalising. Their interventions pointed at inequalities between generations, genders and geographic realities; inequalities that, they said, need to be redressed in order to mitigate the risk of Jewish-Christian dialogue becoming irrelevant.

 

Conclusions and next steps

As the symposium participants left for their more or less distant homes, the organisers were well aware that the real value of the event can only be measured by its broader ramifications, and it will take time for this to become apparent.

One of the conclusions reached was that the controversial parts of the texts can give rise to disagreement and the real solution lies in going beyond the academic debate and actually living the interfaith relationship.

It is hoped that the papers presented will be published, together with some post-symposium reflections. In a longer-term plan, the new insights will be reformulated so that they can be used independently in pastoral and educational settings. The latter is an ambitious plan, given the complexity of the discourse, yet an important one in reaching out to a wider church membership.

Among the many questions raised, the one that lingers most insistently is one that draws attention to the present and asks: who is the dialogue for today and where do we wish it to go?

How did the symposium come about?

The symposium was born from a desire among the sisters of NDS to explore Christology since the Shoah. They organised the first of a series of meetings on the theme in 2013 in Oświęcim, site of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.

The 2015 Vatican document “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable”, inviting exploration of the theological implications of Nostra Aetate, confirmed that the sisters were on a path the Church wanted them to tread, and they partnered with the brothers of NDS to convene a broader group to advance their research. But Covid-19 halted the progress underway and, when normality began to return, the brothers were no longer in a position to continue.

In 2022, Sisters Mary Reaburn and Thérèse Fitzgerald, who were carrying the initiative forward, began to look for a new partner. When friends at ACU accepted Sr Mary’s invitation to work together, the project regained impetus, culminating in the recent symposium.

Yet the event’s inspiration dates back even further. “It was really the sisters in France, Italy, Belgium and Hungary who risked their lives to save Jewish people during World War II that inspired us to look for ways to work against anti-semitism,” explains Sr Mary. “Seven of them were awarded the status of ‘Righteous among the Nations’ by Yad Vashem, but in reality many sisters were involved in the effort. The inspiration of our Sisters in Europe and North America who helped get Nostra Aetate accepted by the Bishops of Vatican II was also a driving force for us. We feel it’s our responsibility towards them and towards the Church to keep pushing the boundaries of Jewish-Christian relations.”