Catholic-Jewish Engagements on Israel
Holy Land, Political Territory, or Theological Promise?
What happens when religious Zionists sit down with Catholic theologians to discuss God’s promise of land to the Jewish people? With the right scholars and activists, a timely and valuable book.
Catholic-Jewish Engagements on Israel is the newest volume in the Judaism and Catholic Theology series published by the Catholic University Press of America. Edited by Catholic theologians Gavin D’Costa, Etienne Vetö, and Thomas Joseph White, this rich and provocative book wrestles with the question, What, if anything, is the theological significance of the emergence of Israel in 1948? Among the wrestlers are several citizens of Israel, including Yazid Said, an Anglican priest who is a Palestinian-born Israeli citizen and lectures on Islam at Liverpool Hope University.
In the introduction, D’Costa parses the central question further: Is Israel a political territory, holy land, or yet-to-be-realized theological promise? It is a question that has been “on the horizon” of the Catholic Church since the promulgation in 1965 of Nostra aetate, D’Costa says, but “not properly addressed” until now. (Nostra aetate called for mutual understanding and respect between Catholics and Jews, affirmed the validity of Judaism, and rejected antisemitism.)
