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Perspectives: Christian-Jewish encounter in the Holy Land
J. (Coos) Schoneveld
The most conspicuous fact concerning the Christian-Jewish encounter in the Holy Land is that the Christians who have been involved in it belong in the category of those who have come from abroad in order to get in touch with the origin of their faith. Moreover even among those who belong in this category, only a small segment have been really involved in this. It cannot be denied, and it should not be denied that the fact of the Holocaust has played a very important role in their motivation. Just as pilgrims to the Holy Land in past centuries saw themselves as representatives of the Christians in their home countries when they came to the Holy Land, so also these Christians from abroad who are involved in the Christian-Jewish encounter see themselves as acting on behalf of those in their countries who are not able to come to the Holy Land for this purpose. They come here with a burdened past. Their relationship with the Jewish people is not as new and fresh as is that of the locally rooted Christians of the Holy Land, but has found expression in often highly developed theological conceptions regarding the Jewish people, which were a true reflection of actual attitudes towards Jews in daily life. Such conceptions were permeated by what Jules Isaac has termed "the teaching of contempt". It was often a theology of rejection of the Jewish people. The Church is, according to such views, the true heir of the Jewish people and of the divine promises given to it. The disastrous contribution of this theology to the Holocaust has often been spelled out. There must be something very wrong in a theology that could have such effects. Many have felt that a rethinking of theology is urgently needed, not primarily as a spiritual reparation to the Jewish People, but rather as a purification of the Church itself and a rediscovery of its own true identity.
Encountering a Living Tradition
The Jewish people was often considered a written off, anachronistic, nearly dead entity, but today we see that the Jewish people is alive, despite all the attempts to destroy and to kill it. Christians feel an urge to rethink their former theology in an environment, and in a reality where the Jewish people is most conspicuously alive, i.e. in the State of Israel. The impact of this encounter with the Jewish people as a people that is alive, is often very strong. Indeed it confronts them in many ways with the very origins of their faith. In the encounter with the Jewish people the very foun¬dations of the Christian faith are being examined and submitted to discussion. Christians who have been involved in the Christian-Jewish encounter have experi¬enced great enrichment of their own thinking through becoming intimately acquainted with the Jewish faith and tradition. At the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel, St. Isaiah's House, Ratisbonne, the American Institute of Holy Land Studies, where Chris¬tian theologians deal specifically with the Jewish faith and tradition, new insights have been gained into the significance of aspects of biblical faith, which have been largely neglected in Christian theology. I am thinking of the experience of joy in the observance of the Torah, the importance of the dimension of law in the life of faith, the significance of the Sabbath as a paradigm of the right attitude towards creation and nature, the social and political dimensions of the life of faith and so many other things. In addition, Christians in the Holy Land who are engaged in the encounter with Jewish tradition have the opportunity of benefitting from the intensive research carried out in Israeli universities in the fields of Judaism in the Second Temple period: Midrash, Mishna, Talmud etc. Ever more Christian students and scholars are coming from abroad for shorter periods to avail themselves of this opportunity of getting in touch with the origins of their faith, Christianity's Jewish roots. That a considerable number of those come from the non-Western Christian world is of great importance. In their struggle to get rid of those elements of Chris¬tian theology, which have been influenced by Western imperialistic and colonialistic ideology, and to get back to the sources of their faith, the contact with the Jewish faith and tradition is of great importance. The con¬ference of the World Council of Churches' Consultation on the Church and the Jewish People, which was held in Jerusalem in 1977, and in which a good number of African theologians participated, workshops for African and Asian theologians at the Swedish Theological Institute, the summer seminars organised by the Com¬mittee for the Establishment of an African Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and the Israel Interfaith Com¬mittee, the one-year programme in Jerusalem for the students of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, in which many non-Western students participate, all of these are indications of the growing interest in this aspect of the Christian-Jewish encounter in the Holy Land.
It is understandable, though nevertheless sad, that, because of the present difficult relationship on the political level between Jews and Arabs in this country, Arab Christians are, in effect, unable to avail themselves of this opportunity. I do, however, see a great future, in time of peace, for an indigenous Christian theology in this country, which would grow in a deep and creative exchange with Jewish religious thinking. The rich potentiality of such contacts is glimpsed in the research work done by Professor Bellarmino Bagatti on Judaeo¬Christianity, and by Fr. Jacob Willebrands on the roots of the Christian worship and theology of the local Palestinian Church, which reach back to the very beginning of the Church, and have much in common with ancient Jewish faith and tradition. Once the State of Israel has, as we hope, been integrated into the Middle East, enabling the free flow of ideas and people from other Middle Eastern countries, from Africa and Asia, to start, a deeper acquaintance with the Jewish roots of Christianity may have an important impact on the re-orientation of Christian theology in the non-Western world. Is it an unrealistic dream to hope, in a time of peace, for the establishment by the local Arabic-speaking churches of the Holy Land of a theological seminary, or faculty, which would work in close co-operation with the Departments of Jewish Studies of the Israeli universities, and in which the future priests of the churches of the Holy Land, as well as people from other Middle Eastern countries, from Africa and Asia, would be enrolled?
This would certainly pose a big challenge to the Jews in Israel. Once they are relieved of the necessity of always assuming a defensive posture, they will be challenged to new and bold thinking on a great variety of issues.
An Important Issue to be Faced
One of these issues, which is connected with the existence of the modern State of Israel, is the problem of Modernity and Jewish identity. This is already now a matter of importance in the Christian-Jewish encounter in Israel. In the course of my own research into the approaches to the Hobrew Bible and its teaching in Israeli educational literature, I became impressed with the importance of the issue of Modernity and Jewish Identity in the Christian-Jewish encounter, especially in Israel. Here in Israel the Jewish people is forced to express its identity within the framework of a modern state. In Jewish identity the national and religious dimensions are closely related. Under the impact of modernity, a loss in meaning affecting the religious dimension may constitute a danger in two directions. It may either cause Jewish identity to be reduced to shallow nationalism and chauvenism, or it may lead to a gradual overall dilution of Jewish identity, and eventu¬ally result in its dissolution. It therefore seems that, under the impact of modernity, a substantial re-interpret¬ation of its sources is for Judaism an objective necessity. It is here that a fruitful dialogue and interchange be¬tween Jews and Christians is possible, since Christianity too is faced with this same challenge, both in the Holy Land and abroad. Since the two traditions have a substantial part of their sources in common, namely the Hebrew Scriptures, there is a real basis for co-operation between them in meeting this challenge of bringing to light the significance and relevance of their common sources for modern man and for the modern world. In a dialogue group of Jews and Christians, such as the Jerusalem Rainbow Group, members are grappling with this issue in various ways.
The Christian-Jewish encounter is burdened with a traumatic past, and, especially in the Holy Land, is carried on in the present under difficult political circum¬stances. No wonder, therefore, that it is still in an embryonic state. Only a few people are involved in it. Many political channels of communication are blocked, because of suspicion originating in the past, and because of the anxiety, fear, and distrust, which accompany the present political conflict. What will the future be like? Will religion be a stumbling block, or a catalyst to peace in our area? Are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam mutually exclusive religions, which are in everlasting strife and competition among themselves? Christianity and Islam both have their theories of substitution, or suppression with regard to other religions, albeit in different ways. Christianity has often claimed to supersede Judaism, and Islam has often claimed to supersede Judaism and Christianity. If this is the last answer that Christianity and Islam have to give, then the future looks rather bleak, and we have to despair of religion as a contributing factor to peace. We should then wish — with Gobi Habib of the Middle East Council of Churches — that the process of secularization continue with greater force. In view, however, of the diabolical forces that have been unleashed in this twentieth century by secular man who does not know of any ultimate accountability, we may doubt whether this is the proper answer.
Future Task for the Three Monotheistic Tra¬ditions
It seems that a major task now set before Judaism, Christianity and Islam is to develop a self-understanding, which would recognise the validity of other religions. May we say, with Paul van Buren, in his lecture at Tantur, in November 1977, that, "Jesus has becomeour point of entry for Gentiles into the movement of God's purpose, within which Israel has much earlier been set," (when it was given the Torah), the movement which started with Abraham? And may we say that the Qur'an is another point of entry for Gentiles into that sanie movement? The question we, Jews, Christians and Muslims have to face is then not, which one is the true religion, but whether we have been true to God's purpose in our own religion, and the criterion of truth should be sought in faithfulness to one's vocation. God's purpose has been concisely expressed in Genesis 18: 17- 19; "The Lord said, `Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteous¬ness and justice:" Jews, Christians and Muslims have been brought into "the way of the Lord," and we have to ask ourselves to what extent we are faithful to our vocation to establish righteousness and justice on earth, and thus fulfil God's purpose. This is the common challenge, which we, Jews, Christians, and Muslims face together, irrespective of our point of entry into this movement, which began with Abraham, and which will go on to that Final Day, on which God's purpose will be fully realised.
Printed with kind permission from COMMON GROUND, Journal of the Council of Christians and Jews, London. No. 3 (1982)
Rev. Dr. Coos Schoneveld is a Minister of the Netherlands Reformed Church who represented his Church in Israel for thirteen years. During that time he was the Executive Secretary of the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel and was also Secretary to the Jerusalem Rainbow Group. He is presently the General Secretary of the International Council of Christians and Jews whose headquarters are in the Martin Buber House, Heppenheim, West Germany.
