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SCJR 12, no. 1 (2017): 1-13 Covenant, Universal Mission, and Fulfillment WILLIAM MADGES [email protected] Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA 19131 This article was generated from the February 2016 Saint Joseph’s University “Consultation on the Newest Statements about the Christian-Jewish Relation- ship.” “‘The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable’” (G&C), a document is- sued by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (CRRJ) in 2015, describes the impact of Nostra aetate (No. 4) fifty years after its promul- gation at the Second Vatican Council. As the Preface acknowledges, G&C not only looks back at what has been accomplished over the past several decades, but also provides a stimulus for the future by offering a “starting point for further theological thought with a view to enriching and intensifying the theological di- mension of Jewish–Catholic dialogue.”1 In the decades since the Council, the dialogue between Catholics and Jews has developed considerably and bonds of friendship have formed between those engaged in such dialogue. This most recent Vatican document affirms the positive conclusions that have resulted from it. However, there is considerable unresolved tension in G&C’s description of the theological relationship between Judaism and Christianity, between the Old Covenant and the New, between the Old Testament and the New. On one hand, the document confirms Nostra aetate’s affirmation of the common spiritual patrimony of Jews and Christians (§29, §44) and its rejection of all forms of anti-Semitism (§47). Drawing upon the de- velopments of subsequent years, G&C also declares the irrevocability (§27, §36) and continuing vitality of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, which had been first clearly and explicitly affirmed by Saint Pope John Paul II.2 It also rejects supersessionism or Christian replacement theology (§17, §30, §32), which holds that God’s covenant with the Jewish people has been superseded by God’s “new” covenant with Christians, who have replaced Jews as the recipients of God’s 1 http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews- docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20151210_ebraismo-nostra-aetate_en.html. Numerical references in parentheses throughout this essay are references to specific articles of this Commission document. 2 Pope John Paul II, “Address to the Jewish Community in Mainz, Germany,” November 17, 1980, in Pope John Paul II on Jews and Judaism, 1979-1986, with Introduction and Commentary by Eugene J. Fisher and Leon Klenicki, eds. (Washington, DC.: US Catholic Conference, 1987), 35. 1 Madges: Covenant, Universal Mission, and Fulfillment 2 promises. On the other hand, G&C states that the new covenant brings earlier covenants to fulfillment (§27), that the Church represents the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel (§23), and that the only path to salvation is through Christ (§35). These competing statements raise serious questions: Is it possible to affirm a theology of fulfillment that is not also supersessionist to some degree? If God’s covenant with the Jews has not been revoked, but continues today, what is Judaism’s contemporary mission? To what extent does the CRRJ document artic- ulate an understanding of Judaism’s mission that is consonant with Jewish self- understanding?3 In this essay I wish to argue several points: 1) G&C gives preference to a single-covenant understanding of the Jewish-Christian relationship and a concom- itant theology of fulfillment, both of which strongly reflect traditional Catholic teaching as it has been most recently articulated by Pope Benedict XVI, who au- thorized the preparation of G&C, but which was written after Pope Francis was elected; 2) a theology of fulfillment tends in the direction of supersessionism; and 3) G&C nevertheless contains resources for avoiding supersessionism and creating a more positive estimation of post-biblical Judaism. One Covenant and the Mission of Universality Fulfilled in Jesus the Christ “‘The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable’” identifies the ultimate goal of God’s election of the Jews as God’s chosen people to be the gathering together of all of humanity and leading them to God (§22). This goal is an intrinsic part of God’s plan of salvation.4 According to G&C, there are not two paths to salvation; rather, a single path begins with the people Israel and reaches its cul- mination with and in Jesus (§34; also see §25). Pope Benedict articulated this understanding of a single covenant and a single path to salvation in his writings both prior to and after his election as pope. As a university professor in the 1950s and 1960s, Joseph Ratzinger had lectured on the philosophy and the history of religion. In that context, he declared that the history of religions reveals a dynamic development from primitive religion to mythical religion, which was then transcended in one of two ways—either in the form of mysticism or in what he called the monotheistic revolution, which at- 3 “On the practical level in particular, Christians must therefore strive to acquire a better knowledge of the basic components of the religious tradition of Judaism; they must strive to learn by what essential traits the Jews define themselves in light of their own religious experience.” Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration “Nostra aetate” (n. 4), Preamble. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews- docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19741201_nostra-aetate_en.html 4 “God entrusted Israel with a unique mission, and He does not bring his mysterious plan of salvation for all peoples (cf. 1 Tim 2:4) to fulfilment without drawing into it his ‘first-born son’ (Ex 4:22). From this it is self-evident that Paul in the Letter to the Romans definitively negates the question he himself has posed, whether God has repudiated his own people. Just as decisively he asserts: ‘For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.’ (Rom 11:29)” (“The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Ir- revocable,” §36). 3 Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 12, no. 1 (2017) tained classic form in ancient Israel.5 Writing forty years later as cardinal, he refined his characterization of the two most recent stages of human religious development. Instead of contrasting mysticism and monotheism, he now pre- ferred to speak of “a mysticism of identity” in contrast to “a personal understanding of God.”6 The path to a personal and true understanding of God, he declared, begins with Abraham. It develops in the subsequent history of Israel, and is further refined in the experience of the Exile, the formulation of wisdom literature, and the transition of Judaism into the Greek world. According to Ratzinger, the creation of the Septuagint allowed the Old Testament to move be- yond Israel, “reaching out to all the peoples of the earth. That was indeed the effect this book had, and its translation did indeed in many respects further accen- tuate the universalistic trait in Israel’s religion—not least, in its picture of God, since the name of God, JHWH, no longer appeared as such but was replaced by the word Kyrios, ‘Lord’.”7 The faith of Israel, translated into Greek thought forms, was successful in attracting many of the enlightened minds of the ancient world. The question for Ratzinger, however, was whether Israel could succeed in bringing authentic knowledge of God to the entire world. And this is where Chris- tianity comes into the picture. According to Ratzinger, the network of God- fearers who were attracted to Israel’s faith became “the precondition for the Christian mission: Christianity was that form of Judaism, with a universal dimen- sion, in which what the Old Testament had hitherto been yet unable to give was now fully granted.”8 Christianity made full universalism possible by making blood relationship with the patriarch, the particularist legal and moral structures of Judaism, and the Jewish cult no longer requisite for membership in God’s people. Ratzinger concluded: Thus the spiritual development that could be perceived in Israel’s path had attained its goal, the uninterrupted universality that was now a practical pos- sibility. Reason and mystery had met together, the very fact that the whole had been brought together in one person [i.e., Jesus] had opened the door for everyone: through the one God, all could become brothers and sisters.9 Ratzinger elaborated on this idea in a more focused way in Many Religions— One Covenant. There he stated that the “faith of Israel was directed to universality. Since it is devoted to the one God of all men, it also bore within itself the 5 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions (San Fran- cisco, CA: Ignatius, 2004), 28-29. This portion of the book was originally written in 1963 for inclusion in a Festschrift on the occasion of Karl Rahner’s sixtieth birthday. 6 Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance, 45. See also his Many Religions—One Covenant: Israel, the Church, and the World, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius, 1999), 95-100. 7 Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance, 153. 8 Ibid., 154. 9 Ibid., 156. See 155 for Ratzinger’s description of how Christianity brought about the breakthrough to full universalism. The chapter in which these comments are found was written in 1998. Madges: Covenant, Universal Mission, and Fulfillment 4 promise to become the faith of all nations.”10 That promise, however, was

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