Christology and the Jewish-Christian Dialogue: A Personal Theological Journey

Abstract

The Canadian theologian Gregory Baum has argued that chapter four of Vatican II's Nostra Aetate represents the most radical reformulation of the church's ordinary magisterium to emerge from the Council. He is correct. For this chapter on the Church's Relationship to the Jewish People undercut an understanding of that relationship that had persisted since patristic times. In the classical understanding the Church is presented as replacing the Jewish People in the covenantal relationship with God because of the supposed Jewish responsibility for murdering Jesus the Messiah. Traditional Christological proclamation in the Church was very closely connected with this reversal in covenantal membership. Hence the fundamental change of perception on the part of the Council regarding the Church's relationship with Judaism poses a fundamental challenge. If Jews are now to be seen as remaining in a covenantal relationship with God after Christ, then Christological statement today needs significant reformulation. But it must be a reformulation that protects a continued universal dimension for the actions of Christ.