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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with M
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Many Religions, One Covenant: Israel, the Church, and the World |
Author: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Published: 1999-09 |
List price: $12.95
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Continuity
It seems that Christian theologians have attempted to find the continuity of the faith with it's ancient Jewish roots since the beginning. This has overflowed into the extremes such as Marcion and others who found little or no continuity and another extreme that attempts to liberalize and distill Christianity and Judaism to their lowest common denominators to the point of them losing their significance altogether. As with his work, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI once again draws us back to the essentials of our faith in order to provide an honest comparison. He finds the essential link of Old/New Testament and Judaism/Christianity lies in God's revealing himself to man by way of covenant. Therein is the key to understanding the continuity of the two faiths and the common ground for dialog and understanding.
The identification of covenant makes the Foreword by Dr. Scott Hahn, who lectures and writes extensively on covenant theology, all the more appropriate.
A well reasoned, concise, and helpful discussion leading to a deeper understanding of the continuity of faith in Christianity from Judaism. A must have for any Christian or Jewish theologian's library.
 Bright Thinking Presented Too Briefly
Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI. At the time of this writing he was Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Propogation of the Faith.
This small book is his exploration of ressourcement involving but not limited to a very broad sketching of biblical theology, involving "not just a recovery of the Fathers, but a return to the place where the Fathers returned, again and again: the living oracles, the Word of God" (15).
In Part One, "Israel, the Church and the World," Ratzinger considers whether a rapprochement between the Church and Israel is possible after Auschwitz, and if so toward what end. He begins by examining how the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) highlights the role of Jesus in uniting Jew and Gentile in the worship of the true and Living God. Through His coming, Jesus "brings together the histories of the nations in the community of the the history of Abraham the history of Israel. His mission is unification, reconciliation, as the Letter to the Ephesians (2:18-22) will then present it. The history of Israel should become the history of all" (27). Focusing on how the history and status of the Jews as the chosen people is foundational to the identity and reality of the Church, he establishes the continuing importance of Israel for the Church. The key theme of Jesus' coming is reconciliation, not only of Jew and Gentile to God, but of Jew and Gentile to one another.
Besides reconciliation, Ratzinger explores continuity in the realm of Torah, highlighting the catechism's avowal that Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill (and thus, validate) the Law. There must also be a continuity between Jesus and Israel, or he is an agent of division rather than reconciliation. Ratzinger tends to collapse the Law into the moral law, and sees Jesus as elevating that moral Law to its highest plane and deepest focus, thus validating rather than replacing it. He sees the Older Testmant as fundamentally Law and Promise, and Christ as the interpreter of the former and the fulfillment of the latter.
In Part Two, "The New Covenant," he explores whether the older and New Covenants are each a vassal covenant or a grant covenant, and collapses the covenants plural and lower case into the one Covenant singular and upper case, failing to adequately explain the rationale for and the nature of this shift. I find his theologizing too abstract and self-consciously christocentric, as if all of God's doings collapse into the work of Christ. Part Three is a Homily, "The New Manna," exploring the paradoxical nature of our relationship with God and of His work in the world, forswearing force, accepting weakness and vulnerability, yet inexorably transforming everything.
Part Four, "The Dialogue of The Religions and the Relationship Between Judaism and Christianity," is the most crucial chapter for my work. It involves a bare and careful sketch of a kind of logos theology, in which the truths we know of God are always partial, and the revelation we receive is often a journey in the dark, yet toward the light.
The chapter includes a sletch of the birth and nature of ecumenism, and how Christendom discovered and began to honor the religious imprinting of peoples whom it simply viewed as a target audience. He views discussions of unity and diversity to be crucial, since the geopolitical realities we all live with require of us progress in peace, justice, and preservation of the earth.
He broadly divides world religions into two categories: tribal and universal, and then divides universal religions into theistic ones (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and mystical ones. He opens the question as to whether unity is to be attained either by mystical religions absorbing the theistic ones, or vice versa. To these two options he adds a third, the pragmatic solution, orthoprzxy, by which any religion would be evaluated and disciplined through its practice of the Golden Rule.
He identifies four problems, or four losses, if mystical religion were to absorb theistic religion: loss of a distinction between theistic and mystical religions, loss of the cosmos through all embracing interiority, loss of the relevance and meaning of history, and loss of binding ethics. As for the pragmatic model (orthopraxy) he indicates that religion must inform and structure ethics and morality which are not free-floating self evident categories, and that the goal is not religion as moralism but rather growth in the knowledge and service of God.
As for theistic religion absorbing the mystical, he first considers the unique relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and the question for their peaceful reconciliation (he would probably view coexistence as inadequate). He identifies two key ideas to reduce the tension and increase agreement between the Church and Israel: that through Jesus Israel's God becomes the God of the nations, and that Jesus is the servant of Israel's God for the nations' sake. These two facts can be freely acknowledged by both Jews and Christians. He suggests that two poles anchor the faith of Israel: Torah and the Messianic hope. He sees Christianity as similarly anchored, with Jesus as the Church's Sinai, and the second coming as her messianic hope. These two poles--Torah and hope link past, present and future for Israel as obedience to a received deposit, present living out of God's will, and hope in the Messiah to come. The same is true for the Church, living in the obedience of faith (past/faith), anticipation of the parousia (future/hope), and love in the present. Ratzinger avers that Christ therefore both separates and unites the Church and Israel.
Finally, in configuring the relationship between the Christian faith and mystical religions, Ratzinger says Christianity has room for a God who s always greater than our formulations, and that God's self-revelation simultaneously conceals, as in the kenosis (the self-emptying of Christ in the Incarnation). In structuring and conceiving the dialogue or religions, he says (1) the encounter of thr religions is not possible by renouncing or downplaying truth but only by encountering truth more deeply; (2) We must be prepared to acknowledge and find the truth others have found even when it comes to us in strange and foreign garb; (3) Mission and dialogue go hand in hand, since dialogue aims at finding truth and missionaries must always be learners as well as teachers. Returning to his logos imagery, he closes by indicating that all of us have encountered truth to some degree and we must learn from each other, listening to the Logos.
Clearly, Ratzinger is a first-class thinker. That the book is so brief is both a strength and weakness, as matters are repeatedly sketched instead of drawn. One wants to know more, and yet, appreciates the momentum of the overview. I appreciate the book as a summation of now Pope Benedict XVI's perspective, and have three problems with the treatment. First, I find myself alienated and unconvinced by overly abstract theological arguments: it seems a linguistic game to me (cf. Wittgenstein). Second, to the degree he seeks to speak for Israel, as in the case of what Jews believe, he offends. He would not welcome a Jews defining and characterizing the Holy See. The editors should have had a rabbi on hand to Jewishly validate or invalidate the portrait of the Jewish people Ratzinger constructs. Finally, I find myself far less sanguine about the prospects of absorbing or reaching rapprochement with the world religions. My evangelical conditioning suggests that the voices heard in some religions come from a different kingdom.
Despite these caveats, this is an important book for those seeking an orientation to the current pope's mindset and views on the Jews.
Insightful
This is a surprising book! I was amazed to read of such views taken by the Holy Pontiff. I have a more positive view after reading this short but important book.
A Beginning to Fruitful Reflection
Much of what Cardinal Ratzinger has said here has been said in other works (by him or by others). However, the given text functions as a thoughtful synthesis of these movements of thought. It is not an attempt to completely answer the question of pluralism or of the Christian-Jewish relationship. Instead, this text lays a basic framework for considering Christ's role in fulfilling the Jewish faith, the nature of Covenant as God's self-communication, the nature of the New Covenant, and religious dialogue.
I suggest this text to all but not lightly. While it is not very esoteric, it is weighty enough to require quiet reflection. The fruits of reading it are great and also give one a starting point for further thought on the subject material. I suggest it to all open minds.
Many Religions,One Covenant:Isreal,the Church,and the World
The style is typical Ratzinger. Thoughtful and insightful. Slow reading at times yet this is to be expected when dealing with a devisive issue which as firmented for nearly 1500 years. Definately worth the time to read and digest if for no other reason than to provide the reader with a farmilarization to the author. More professionally known these days as Pope Benedict XVI.
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