Washington Theological Consortium - EcuNotes #20 (September 2003)
Authored by Rev. John Ford, CSC, STD.

FAITH TRANSFORMED: CHRISTIAN ENCOUNTERS WITH JEWS AND JUDAISM. Edited by John C. Merkle. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 216. Paper, $23.95. Most Christians read the "Old Testament" from a Christological perspective, but comparatively few Christians ever read Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible or meet their Jewish counterparts, let alone engage in serious interfaith dialogue. The essays in this collection are the personal reflections of eleven Christian scholars, who have benefited from Christian-Jewish dialogue in terms both of personal friendships and of a scholarly understanding of the inter-facing of the Jewish and Christian scriptures -- not simply as texts to be studied but more importantly as continuing sources of spirituality. These essays touch upon many major Jewish theological themes that form the background of the New Testament, as well as many aspects of modern Jewish culture and religious observance; the volume provides a helpful introduction to modern Judaism, while rejecting supersessionist presuppositions (that the New Testament has superseded or replaced the "Old Testament").

SHARING THE SCRIPTURES. By Philip Cunningham. New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2003. Pp. ix + 94. Paper, $9.95. The first third of this booklet points out that in recent years many churches have issued official statements affirming that "the Christian covenant with God in Christ has not ended the earlier covenantal life between God and the people of Israel"; reflecting this perspective, the author proposes the terminology: "Shared Testament" and "Christian Testament." The book's second section discusses five sets of liturgical readings (for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday) in terms of their different Jewish and Christian interpretations. This booklet concludes with some brief reflections on the Pontifical Biblical Commission's statement on "The Jewish People and Their Scriptures in the Christian Bible" (2001), four discussion questions, a nine-word glossary, and a fourteen-item bibliography. While one whole-heartedly welcomes this attempt to advance Jewish-Christian dialogue, one regrets that the contents are so slim.

Ecumenical News International (ENI) is accessible directly [http://www.eni.ch/] and through the web-site of the World Council of Churches [http://www.wcc-coe.org/].

HOLOCAUST MONUMENT goes up in Berlin: (ENI: 03-0501) Four years after Germany's parliament decided to build a Holocaust monument in Berlin, the first phase of construction has begun on the memorial to the 6 million Jews killed under the Nazi regime (1933-1945). The memorial, designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman, will be located in a square facing Berlin's Brandenburg Gate at the center of Berlin.

Mel Gibson's THE PASSION stirs passions before release [ENI-03-0473] A film on the death of Jesus produced and directed by Mel Gibson is causing heated discussion -- a full half year before its planned release. "The Passion" will reportedly depict, in graphic detail, the brutality of Jesus' death on the cross and may, some feel, inflame anti-Semitism because of potentially prejudicial depictions of Jews.

Peter J. Boyer, "The Jesus War," THE NEW YORKER (September 15, 2003) gives an insider's report about the controversy surrounding "The Passion"; his article is available at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/980753/posts-page=62,13

INTER-FAITH MEETING ends with call for TOLERANCE [ENI: 03-0490] More than 400 religious leaders and thousands of other participants from the world's main faiths gathered in Aachen for a peace conference which ended with a call to dialogue and a rejection of religious fundamentalism: "Religions can never be used to justify hatred and violence."

William G. Rusch, "The Journey to Reception -- A Progress Report," ECUMENICAL TRENDS 32/6 (June 2003) 1-8: discusses the history and theology of "reception" in view of its increasing significance as a result of the consensus agreements emerging through ecumenical dialogue: in effect, churches are called upon to "receive" each other's doctrinal statements.

Paul A. Crow, Jr. "Fanfare, Tillard, and Ecumenism in Rome," ECUMENICAL TRENDS 32/8 (September 2003) 14-15: reports on the inauguration of the Tillard professorship of ecumenical studies at the University of Saint Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome; Jean Marie Tillard (1927-2000) was a noted ecumenist who taught at the Dominican Faculty of Philosophy and Theology in Ottawa, Canada.

Mitzi J. Budde, "Lutheran-Roman Catholic Convergence on the Theology and Ministry of the Laity," ECUMENICAL TRENDS 32/8 (September 2003) 1-7: compares and contrasts the ministries of the laity in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Roman Catholic Church and points out similarities both in practice and in theology.