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Catholic Priest Urges
Use Of Judaic Values
HOWARD ROSENBERG
Special to The Jewish News
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FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1989
prominent Catholic
scholar has called on
Christian denomina-
tions to end their traditional
refusal to incorporate Jewish
values rom the Old Testa-
ment in their theology and
religious practice.
The theologian, the Rev.
John Pawlikowski, professor
of social ethics at the Catholic
Theological Union in
Chicago, said he believes that
"Christianity has gotten too
de-Judaized."
However, he said that
Christians are increasingly
adopting Jewish values, such
as the importance of building
a strong community.
Despite this welcome
development, Pawlikowski
said fundamental differences
will likely remain between
Christianity and Judaism on
the modern State of Israel's
biblical claim to its
homeland.
Pawlikowski, a member of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Council, spoke at the home of
Israeli Ambassador Moshe
Arad recently on "The Jewish
Covenant: Its Continuing
Challenge for Christian
Faith." His talk was spon-
sored by the Israel Collo-
quium, which hopes to im-
prove relations between the
Christian community and
Israel.
Pawlikowski spoke about
the Second Vatican Council,
convened by Pope John XXIII
from 1962 to 1965, and how it
tried to restore a community
orientation to Christianity.
The council recognized that,
because of Christianity's
traditional emphasis on per-
sonal salvation, "The world
for Christians frequently
became a place they longed to
escape, rather than a place
they were called to
transform."
Pawlikowski said that a re-
cent movement within Chris-
tianity — liberation theology,
which calls for freedom to
people living under op-
pressive governments
worldwide — is an outgrowth
of "Judaism's communal
historical sense."
But some theologians in
that movement do not view
the Israelites' "exodus-
convenantal" tradition
positively, Pawlikowski said,
adding that some have "in-
troduced the notion of Jewish
responsibility for (Jesus')
death, that seems to return us
to the unfortunate days prior
to the Second Vatican Coun-
cil."
Pawlikowski also spoke of
Judaism's "more positive
view of the human person
than Christianity," and how
increased contacts with
Judaism "may help restore
the far more positive outlook
on sexuality as an avenue for
experiencing the divine
pleasure," he said.
On the Jews' historic claim
to the land of Israel,
Pawlikowski said many
Christians maintain that the
Jews' biblical claim to the
land "automatically breeds
injustice."
Moshe Aumann, consul
general at the Israeli Em-
bassy here, commented that
some mainline churches have
"The world for
Christians
frequently became
a place they
longed to escape."
moved "dramatically toward a
greater understanding and
rapprochement with Juda-
ism," but have stopped short
of "closing the circle with
regard to Israel."
Conversely, Aumann said
Christian fundamentalists
and evangelicals "have been
the most positive in their
(political) attitude toward
Israel," but view it
theologically as a precursor to
Jesus' return to earth after
Armageddon, the final battle
between God and his enemies
described in the New Testa-
ment Book of Revelation.
Robert St. John, the
86-year-old journalist who en-
dowed the annual lecture,
concluded by asking
Pawlikowski's reaction to the
Columbia University En-
cyclopedia of Religion's defirii-
tion of the word "covenant."
"The great covenant be-
tween God and Israel in
Christian theology is called
the old covenant because
Jesus is believed to have come
to fulfill it and set up a new
and better covenant," he read.
"That obviously reflects
what was certainly the ab-
solutely prevailing
theological perspective in all
forms of Christianity for a
very long time and even in to
the present day," Pawlikowski
responded.
"I think it is only beginning
to change. Theologians and
now certainly some texts, and
even official texts at the
highest levels, are beginning
to speak in a new way."
Jewish Telegraphic Agency