Theology Today - Vol 42, No. 1 - April 1985 - BOOK REVIEW - Tractate on the Jews: The Significance of Judaism for Christian Faith

121 - Tractate on the Jews: The Significance of Judaism for Christian Faith

Tractate on the Jews:
The Significance of Judaism for Christian Faith
By Franz Mussner
Translated by Leonard Swidler, Philadelphia, Fortress, 1984. 352 pp. $29.95.

This is an important book. The anti-Jewish spirit of the "Tractates against the Jews" written in the patristic period, has its effect on Christian theological thinking even today. The author, a renowned Roman Catholic New Testament scholar in Germany, has now written the first tractate for the Jews. In the introduction he writes: "Behind this book lies a learning process of many years, a true changing of the mind, and I would like to invite the reader to enter into this learning process and to think newly and differently about Israel, the elder brother and 'the root' of the Church."

The first chapter explains the point of departure by starting with a paragraph, "Auschwitz as an occasion for rethinking." The German version is even more distinct calling Auschwitz an "impulse" for rethinking. The author considers the declaration "Nostra aetate" of Vatican Council II from 1965 as the major result of this rethinking in Catholic circles. Many Christian groups committed to this kind of rethinking, to which also the present writer belongs on the Protestant side, would agree that this is the decisive and basic insight: The Holocaust inevitably forces Christians to rethink their attitude towards Jews. In America this insight found its expression a decade ago in an international symposium, the papers of which have been published under the title Auschwitz-Beginning of a New Era? (edited by Eva Fleischner, 1976).

The rethinking begins with an "Outline of a Christian Theology of Judaism" (chapter 1). Here the author deals with a number of central Biblical topics with regard to Israel's religious self-definition: election, people of God, the land, covenant, torah. He shows that all of these fundamental conceptions are considered as valid and valuable in the New Testament as well. He continues by dealing with some of the most crucial New Testament texts, such as Romans 9:4f, 11:26, and John 4:22 ending up with the question, "Does Israel post Christum still have a 'salvific function'?", which he answers in the affirmative from different points of view.

122 - Tractate on the Jews: The Significance of Judaism for Christian Faith

The next step is the explanation of "The Great Heritage of the Faith of Israel" (chapter 2). Here the author demonstrates in detail that the most important aspect is not that of "difference," but of "the great heritage of the faith of Israel which has come into the Gentile world through Jesus and the Church" so that "Israel became paradigmatic for the Gentile world" and "is also the continuing theological root of the Church." He unfolds this thesis by addressing a number of topics such as monotheism, the idea of creation, humanity (the "image of God"), fundamental attitudes before God (holiness, obedience, fear of God, knowledge of God, etc.), the messianic idea, and the yearning for a just world. It is an impressive picture of the fundamental character of Jewish religious ideas.

In the following three chapters, the author goes deeper into his field of New Testament studies: "The 'Jew' Jesus" (chapter 3), "Paul and Israel" (chapter 4), and "Theological 'Reparation' " (chapter 5). The frame of this review does not allow one to give an impression of the manifold aspects and the richness of exegetical insights the author presents in these chapters. The main advantage again lies in the shift of approach, that is, to re-read all those texts that in the Christian tradition usually have been turned against the Jews without anti-Jewish prejudices and by that to elucidate their deep-rooted relations to Jewish traditions.

Of course, the author does not try to conceal "That Which Distinguishes and Divides" (chapter 6), such as christology, Christian freedom and law, the problem of understanding of redemption. But he continues by speaking of "Common Tasks and Goals" (chapter 7) that are aimed to work for the "shalomization of the world." "The Church and Judaism should jointly develop a 'world-responsible cooperation theology' without therefore having to give up their own proper characteristics."

The important contribution this book makes to the promotion of Christian rethinking lies in the successful merging of basic theological reflections and detailed exegetical studies carried out by an experienced New Testament scholar who is at the same time a committed Christian devoted to the task of building a new Christian theology without anti-Jewish prejudices. Therefore, the book is to be highly recommended as a solid and stimulating aid for detailed studies of the problems connected with Jewish-Christian relations.

Rolf Rendtorff
University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg, West Germany