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Abstract
Nostra Aetate, Vatican II's declaration on the Church's relationship with other religions, initiated a new stage in Catholic–Jewish relations. This relationship has been one marked by dialogue and the search for common ground. This has been continued by Pope Benedict. This same Pope has suggested that the documents of Vatican II can be interpreted through a hermeneutic of renewal in continuity or a hermeneutic of rupture. In this essay Nostra Aetate is examined through these two hermeneutics, and suggests that dialogue has become detached from evangelization. Pope Benedict's call for a Court of the Gentiles, borrowing from Judaism and the Temple, is examined and offered as useful for a new stage in Catholic–Jewish relations. The Court of the Gentiles provides us with new channels of dialogue and places the person of Jesus at the centre, as attempted by Rabbi Jacob Neusner. Finally, the mariological dimension of Nostra Aetate and Pope Benedict's writings is presented as an essential aspect of Catholic–Jewish dialogue which has been neglected.
Notes
1. Pope Benedict XVI, Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the members of the Roman Curia and papal representatives for the traditional exchange of Christmas greetings, 2009, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/december/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20091221_curia-auguri_en.html, para. 10.
2. Pope Benedict XVI, ‘Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia offering them his Christmas greetings’, Thursday, December 22, 2005, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/december/documents/hf_ben_xvi_spe_20051222_roman-curia_en.html.
3. Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas greetings 2009.
4. Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas greetings 2005.
5. Pope Benedict XVI, Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the members of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, Saturday, January 27, 2007, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20070127_roman-rota_en.html.
6. ‘Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions’, in Walter M. Abbott SJ, The Documents of Vatican II, trans. from the Latin (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966), 664, para. 4.
7. Joseph Ratzinger, Many Religions, One Covenant: Israel, the Church and the World, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), 28.
8. Pope Benedict XVI, ‘Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the President of the Commission for the Religious Relations with the Jews on the Occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Declaration of Nostra Aetate’, 26 October 2005, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20051026_nostra-aetate_en.html.
9. Rabbi David Rosen, ‘“Nostra Aetate”, Forty Years after Vatican II: Present and Future Perspectives’, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20051027_rabbi-rosen_en.html, para. 2.
10. Rosen, ‘“Nostra Aetate”’, para. 6.
11. Arthur Kennedy, ‘Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate’, in Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition, ed. Matthew L. Lamb and Matthew Levering (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 404.
12. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, article 4, part 1 (North Carolina, USA: TAN Books, 2008).
13. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, article 4
14. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, article 4
15. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, article 4
16. Nostra Aetate, 4.
17. Nostra Aetate, 2.
18. Lumen Gentium, 16, in Abbott SJ, Ibid.
19. Pope Benedict XVI, Visit to the Synagogue of Cologne, August 19, 2005, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050819_cologne-synagogue_en.html.
20. Pope Benedict XVI, Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Jewish Community on the Feast of Pesah, April 14, 2008, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20080414_jewish-community_en.html.
21. Pope Benedict XVI, Visit to the Synagogue of Cologne.
22. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 102.
23. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 109.
24. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 111.
25. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 111.
26. Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, trans. Henry Taylor (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 97.
27. Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 59.
28. Exodus 3:6. Douay Rheims Bible, http://www.drbo.org/chapter/02003.htm. All biblical quotes taken from the Douay Rheims, unless otherwise stated, i.e. The New Jerusalem Bible.
29. Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, trans. J.R. Foster (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 122–5.
30. Genesis 17:4.
31. Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, 128.
32. Isaiah 52:6.
33. Philo of Alexandria, De Virtutibus, 212, 219 in, The Works of Philo Judaes: The Contemporary of Josephus, trans. Charles Duke Yonge (London: H.F. Bohn, 1854–190). Available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book31.html.
34. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 55.
35. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 54.
36. R.J. McKelvey, The New Temple: The Church in the New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 44–6.
37. Ecclesiaticus 35:1–2.
38. Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 37.
39. McKelvey, The New Temple, 22.
40. Scott McKnight, A Light Among the Nations: Jewish Missionary Activity in the Second Temple Period (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 50.
41. McKelvey, The New Temple, 14.
42. Nostra Aetate 1.
43. Nostra Aetate 4. Cf. Is. 66:23, Ps. 65:4, Romans 11:11–32.
44. Ratzinger, Many Religions, 40.
45. Romans 11:5, 23, 28.
46. Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance, 114–15.
47. Lumen Gentium, 6.
48. John 2:21.
49. Lumen Gentium, 9.
50. Lumen Gentium, 13.
51. Lumen Gentium, 13.
52. Nostra Aetate, 1.
53. Lumen Gentium, 1.
54. Matthew 28:19.
55. Dominus Iesus: On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html.
56. Dominus Iesus 2.
57. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelisation, 3, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20071203_nota-evangelizzazione_en.html.
58. Josephus, Against Apion II, Wars of the Jews 6:2, par.7, Antiquities of the Jews 20:9, par.7.
59. 1 Kings 8: 41–43.
60. 1 Maccabees 9:54–5. New Jerusalem Bible (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1978).
61. 2 Maccabees 4: 7–20
62. I Maccabees 3:13. New Jerusalem Bible.
63. 1 Maccabees 3:13. Douay Rheims Bible.
64. Henri Daniel-Rops, Jesus in his time, trans. R.W. Miller (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1955), 344–5.
65. Rabbi Jacob Neusner, A Rabbi talks with Jesus (Canada: McGill-Queens University Press, 2000), 125.
66. James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Leicester UK: Apollos, 2002), 341.
67. Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, 44.
68. John 4:21.
69. John 2:18–19.
70. John 2:19.
71. Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, 48.
72. McKelvey, The New Temple, 72–3.
73. Hebrews10: 19–20. New Jerusalem Bible.
74. Note from the Secretary of State, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2008/documents/rc_seg-st_20080204_nota-missale-romanum_en.html.
75. Ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 48, 64, 67.
76. Ephesians 2:11–16.
77. Tim Hegg, ‘The “Dividing Wall” in Ephesians 2:14: What is it? Who made it? How was it Broke Down?’, http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/Eph%202.14.pdf, 6–8.
78. Leonhard Goppelt and E. Earle Ellis, Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids, MI: Eredams, 1982), 54.
79. Ecclesiasticus 36:27.
80. Adele Berlin et al., The Jewish study Bible: Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 16.
81. John J. Collins, Beyond the Qumran Community: The Sectarian Movement of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 324.
82. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, trans. Adrian Walker (London: Bloomsbury, 2007), 123–5.
83. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, trans. Adrian Walker (London: Bloomsbury, 2007), 110.
84. Harvey Cox, Common Prayers: Faith, Family and a Christian Journey through the Jewish Year (Boston: Mariner Books 2002), 272.
85. McKnight, Light Among the Gentiles, 84.
86. Ernst Lohmeyer, Lord of the Temple (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1961), 43, 92.
87. Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the 44th World Communications Day, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20100124_44th-world-communications-day_en.html.
88. Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas est, 25. Issued 25 December 2005. Available at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc-20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html
89. Neusner, A Rabbi talks with Jesus, 4.
90. Nostra Aetate 4.
91. Galatians 4:4–5.
92. Rabbi Jacob Neusner, Judaism in Monologue and Dialogue (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005), 113.
93. Joseph Ratzinger, ‘Thoughts on the Place of Marian Doctrines and Piety in the Faith and Theology as a Whole’, in Joseph Ratzinger and Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mary: The Church at the Source, trans. Adrian Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 19.
94. ‘Midrash on Lamentations’, in Tod Linafelt, Surviving Lamentations: Catastrophe, Lament, and Protest in the Afterlife of a Biblical Book (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 111–15.
95. Joseph Ratzinger, Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church's Marian Belief, trans. John M. Macdemott SJ (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1983), 65.
96. Joseph Ratzinger, ‘The Sign of the Woman: An Introductory Essay on the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater’, in Ratzinger and von Balthasar, Mary: The Church at the Source, 49.
97. Zephaniah 3:14–17.
98. Exodus 40: 34, King's 8:11.
99. Lamentations 1:4.
100. Luke 2:35.
101. Cox, Common Prayers, 10.