Thursday, 28 January 2016

Seeing Judaism Anew: Christianity's Sacred Obligation,
Ed. Mary C. Boys, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002
Chapter Jesus as the Universal Saviour, "127-137", page 131

So what were the Roman Catholic theologians going to do about that? Peter Phan points out that while the Cathloic Church has always recognised the special status of Judaism, the claim in "Seeing Judaism Anew" that Jews are in a saving covenant with G-d simply makes things worse and intensifies the theological problem.

The challenge for Roman Catholic theologians, then, is to articulate a coherent and credible Christology and soteriology that both honours the Christian belief in Jesus as the saviour of all humankind and includes the affirmation that Judaism is and remains eternally a "saving covenant with G-d".

This approach, fails to recognise the relationship between Jews and Christians, between the church and the synagogue. Instead, it seems to portray them as two different things for different peoples. It entirely misses the point that Rav Sha'ul makes about the olive tree (in Romans 11) and the One New Man (in Ephesians 2). Gentiles are brought near and made a part of the covenants of grace, not given their own covenant. Most importantly, of course, this approach also completely ignores the existence and status of Jewish believers in Yeshua - who seems to rather spoil the picture.