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Presentation
The Editors

For many years now we have been aware that the pace of modern life and rapid communications have made of our world a small village. Nothing could be more important than that all the inhabitants of this village should get to know one another, dialogue with each other. As long as our world was a large one we were able to hide behind
walls that prevented us from truly communicating one with the other. But now in our small village we are finding that the walls can no longer stand. We are face to face with the other, but do we really see him or her? What do we truly know of the other before whom we now stand?
To help us get to understand the other above the misconceptions of our conscious and unconscious prejudices, the International Council of Christians and Jews organized last summer (28-30 June 1981) a colloquium entitled IMAGES OF THE OTHER, presenting Judaism in Christian Education and Christianity in Jewish Education in the
Light of Contemporary Jewish-Christian Relations. Lack of space prevents us, unfortunately, from bringing our readers the complete texts of this challenging colloquium which was rich, not only in the papers presented at plenary sessions, but also in what was done in the workshops by way of position papers and the reactions of the groups to these. From what it has been possible for us to print, however, we hope to be able to present you with its main inspiration and challenge.
As the title of the colloquium implies, it is addressed principally to educators; those who are engaged in the furthering of Jewish-Christian dialogue surely fall into this category in one way or another. The basic meaning of the verb to educate is, as we know, to lead out. Do we not all have the responsibility of leading one another, and
all with whom we come in contact, out of the darkness of prejudice and suspicion into the light of the true experience of the other where his or her image can be seen for what it is - none other than the image of God himself.
For such a vision to become a reality many things have to happen. Space must be -found for the integrity of the other which goes deeper than acceptance of the other, deeper even than accepting the difference of the other. What is demanded of us is nothing less than accepting the distance of the other. It can only be in the deep love that such an acknowledgement brings that Jewish-Christian relations can proceed from its initial stage of meeting the other, learning to know the other, to the point where one can appreciate the fact that there are in the other unsoundable depths before which one can only stand in awe. Beyond the knowable other, the significant other, we must approach the mysterious other. To be thus able to fully accept the distance of the other is to surely reach the high point of dialogue.
It was fitting that the first lecture of the colloquium shuold be entitled Making Space for the Integrity of the Other. It is only in such an atmosphere of openness to the different other that theological discussion and dialogue can take place. These days of study together were rich, not only in the field of education in the more limited sense of the word, but above all in the theological searching and challenging that took place. In this issue we want to share with you some of the insights that emerged, some of the important questions that need to be studied if Jewish-Christian dialogue is truly to advance.
Participants were invited to re-think their historical and theological presuppositions an vital issues affecting the deep relationship between the two fai-ths. It is necessary to see in what direction theological thought must develop in order that Jewish-Christian dialogue may advance confidently into the future. We trust that the following pages
may throw some light on such key questions as the person of Jesus Christ and how he is viewed from the Christian and Jewish perspectives. It is interesting to ask ourselves whether there are indeed two different paths for the people of God to walk in the plan of God. Does the Old Testament find its fulfilment in the New, or is there not another perspective to be added to this which the Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing Nostra Aetate refer to as the perfect fulfilment that will come about at the end of time? How do Jew and Christian respond to their own vocation, secure in the knowledge that they are both fulfilling the will of God, responding to the call of God? The answer lies, we feel, in the happy tension created between one's own deep conviction of being the people of God.