UNITY AND IDENTITY: JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS IN THEIR ECUMENICAL CONTEXT

Since its inception, the Catholic Church, within the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, has lodged the dialogue with Judaism. This decision was and is not fortuitous. It first certainly affects the understanding that the Church has of the nature of her relationship with Judaism. Is and how the dialogue with Judaism part of an inner Christian dialogue? Are Jews seen as so brotherly connected to Christians that, from the perspective of the Church, they belong to a wider Christian brotherhood even if Jews reject the most central theological tenet of the Christian faith, namely the Christ nature of Jesus? Conversely, what are the consequences, from a Jewish perspective, of the being thought as part of an inner Christian ecumenical conversation? Is there not, in such an unspoken affirmation, an implicit rejection of the radical difference and unicity of the Jewish faith and peoplehood? Yet, the reality of a dialogue with Judaism within the wider Christian Ecumenical context, also challenges an over simplistic dichotomy between inner and outer dialogue. Can it create the ground for a more complex exploration of our religious identities, defined not only in light of the teachings of our respective traditions, but now enriched by the dynamics and tensions of the religion of the other, as reflected in its multifaceted shades and pluralistic forms?

The conference on Unity and Identity, exploring the nature of Jewish-Christian Relations in their Ecumenical Context, will propose to shed some historical and ontological lights on these important questions.