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Living Theology
The Editors

In the final two days participants looked back and looked forward. They recalled the topics that had surfaced during the conference but had not been adequately discussed.

During the lively and lengthy meeting of Saturday the cry of the poor and the evil of injustice made their presence felt. The suffering of the Jewish People which culminated in the unspeakable evil of the Shoah, the catastrophic plight of the terrorised people of Guatamala, the abject poverty and the unjust situations of the great majority in the Latin American countries came to life among the participants. The needy of the Western world might not appear to be of the same order, but they are also suffering and are a scandal to our society. The pain of a theology which has been too absolute in its claims for salvation only in Christ and the Church, too arrogant and triumphalist, with disastrous consequences for Jews, other believers and for many of the oppressed, was increasingly perceptible. The demand that these experiences be acknowledged and addressed became urgent. The response of the participants seemed to be a confirmation that God was in their midst. A "solidarity of suffering" was tangible... breakfast and late-night meetings between South/North, Jews/Christians to listen and to talk took place. Theology happened in this experience and through these encounters. Future study looked as if it would be different because horizons had widened and a different consciousness had come to be.
It was no wonder that "Redemption" was high on the agenda with a call to recover the biblicaland Jewish understandings of this reality which would also be close to Liberation theology. The context of this study is the suffering world (the Jewish People, the Poor, Humanity). The task, or mission, of the Church and the Jewish People after the Shoah in the world today would, it is hoped, be revealed. The fact that this would differ according to particular contemporary situations was clear.

For Christians Christ's role in the redemption process is key — yet Jesus lived and died a religious Jew. It was felt that a better understanding of Jesus' continuity with Second Temple Judaism and also of his own uniqueness, would help in discovering the consequences for the identity and mission both of Judaism and of Christianity.
The absoluteness of the Church's claims for salvation in Jesus and the stress on exclusivity needs re-examination and the questions which arise for our pluralistic world today are urgent. Theological concepts depend on the way the tradition is interpreted. Such interpretation can be conditioned by historical circumstances. In the history of Christian theology there have been changes in the concept of salvation and in the use of extra ecclesiam nutla salus. The process of spiritualisation of the concept of salvation has led to misuse of elements of faith for political purposes.