Jewish Chosenness and Religious Diversity – a Contemporary Approach

CHAPTER 2 Jewish Chosenness and Religious Diversity – A Contemporary Approach

Jerome Gellman

Abstract

The task I set myself here is to advance internal Jewish religious renewal and mutual religious understanding by presenting a new approach to the doctrine that the Jews are “the Chosen People,” and to follow out the implications for the relationship between Judaism and other religions. What demands a revised theology of chosenness is the danger of Jews interpreting the doctrine of chosenness in ways that endorse ethnocen- tric supremacy, cultural isolation, and the defamation of other religions. Such a rendering of the doctrine in our times signifies not only an agonistic stance toward other peoples and other religions, but also a serious spiritual shortcoming within Judaism itself. The premise of my theology is that God loves all nations equally.

2.1 Introduction

The last half-century has seen an important shift in the attitude of the Catholic Church, and of several Protestant churches, to Judaism and to Jews. The landmark event was the proclamation of Nostra Aetate on the Church and the Jews, by Pope Paul VI at Vatican II, on October 28, 1965. Since then, tra- ditional Christian demonizing of Jews and Judaism has been giving way to a more respectful attitude toward Judaism than in the past. And strides have been made in rolling back the age-long teaching of anti-Semitism in Christian Churches. Christian theologians have been creating new, friendly theologies on the Jews and Judaism. In July 2009, the Berlin Declaration, “A Time for Recommitment,” issued by the International Council of Christians and Jews, called upon Christians to continue the trajectory of this change. It also called upon Jews to “To re- examine Jewish texts and liturgy in the light of these Christian reforms.” Jews were to respond in kind to the Christian awakening by scrutinizing their own theologies and liturgies for anti-Christian and anti-Gentile content. What fol- lows here is a positive response by a religious Jew to the call to Jews to examine our theology and its attitude toward other religions.

Specifically, I offer a new understanding of the doctrine of the Jews as God’s chosen people. Spinoza pointed out long ago that the Jewish self-identity as God’s chosen people has created resentment and enmity toward the Jews for centuries. Particularly, Christianity claimed for its followers the title of “The New People of God,” thereby replacing the Jews’ claim to the title, which resulted in severe religious competition for the place of honor at God’s table.1 The Synagogue, so it was said, was blind to the fact that it no longer housed God’s chosen people. This attitude is now changing, yet remains a lingering source of inter-religious acrimony. What demands a revised theology of chosenness is the ever-present danger of Jews interpreting the doctrine of chosenness in ways that endorse ethno- centric supremacy, cultural isolation, and the defamation of other religions. Such a rendering of the doctrine in our times signifies not only an agonistic stance toward other peoples and other religions, but a serious spiritual shortcoming within Judaism itself. The task I set myself here is to advance internal Jewish religious renewal and mutual religious understanding by presenting a new approach to the doctrine that the Jews are “the Chosen People,” and to follow out the implications for the relationship between Judaism and other theistic religions. My view relates as well to how Judaism relates to non-theistic religions, but I will not enter that discussion here, leaving that for a later time. I am not the first Jew to undertake this project. Jewish thinkers before me have written much that is worthwhile in advancing new ideas on Jewish chosenness.2 However, for reasons I cannot enter into here, I believe that what has gone before is not yet fully adequate to the task. I hope that my proposal will advance us toward a fully adequate conception of Jewish chosenness for our times. I will be focusing most of the time on the idea of the “chosenness” of the Jews, and only then be drawing the implications for Judaism and religious diversity. In treating the “Chosen People” theme I will not be trying to explain why God chose specifically the Jewish people, rather than, say, the Hittites.

1 For a study of the notion of the Church as “the people of God” in contemporary Catholic theology, see Angela Kim Harkins, “Biblical and Historical Perspectives on “the People of God,” in Transforming Relations, Essays on Jews and Christians throughout History, In Honor of Michael E. Signer, ed. Franklin T. Harkins (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), 319–339. 2 These include: Michael S. Kogan, Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations (London, Continuum Books, 2002); and Michael Wyschogrod in, The Body of Faith, Judaism as Corporeal Election (Minneapolis: Seabury Press, 1983).