While reading Pope Benedict’s latest book, Jesus of Nazareth
Now Sandro Magister at chiesa.com passes along Neusner’s commentary on B16’s book published on May 29 in the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.
First, from Magister’s introduction:
The central issue that prevents the rabbi [Jacob Neusner] from believing in Jesus is his revealing himself as God: the same scandal that led Jesus to his death. In Ratzinger’s judgment, it is precisely here that the value of Neusner’s book lies. The imaginary conversation between the Jewish rabbi and Jesus “highlights the differences in all their sharpness, but it also takes place in great love. The rabbi accepts the otherness of Jesus’ message, and takes his leave free of any rancor; this parting, accomplished in the rigor of truth, is ever mindful of the reconciling power of love.”
For Benedict XVI, this is the path of true dialogue between Jews and Christians. Not to conceal their respective claims to truth, but to bring these to light in reciprocal understanding and respect.
And this is also Neusner’s attitude:
“For the past two centuries Judeo-Christian dialogue served as the medium of a politics of social conciliation, not religious inquiry into the convictions of the other. [...] In his ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ the Judeo-Christian disputation enters a new age. We are able to meet one another in a forthright exercise of reason and criticism.”
And from Neusner’s article:
When my publisher asked for suggestions of colleagues to be asked to recommend the book [A Rabbit Talks with Jesus], I suggested Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Rabbi Sacks had long impressed me by his astute and well-crafted theological writings, the leading contemporary apologist for Judaism. I had admired Cardinal Ratzinger’s writings on the historical Jesus and had written to him to say so. He replied and we exchanged offprints and books. His willingness to confront the issues of truth, not just the politics of doctrine, struck me as courageous and constructive.
But now His Holiness has taken a step further and has answered my critique in a creative exercise of exegesis and theology. In his “Jesus of Nazareth” the Judeo-Christian disputation enters a new age. We are able to meet one another in a forthright exercise of reason and criticism. The challenges of Sinai bring us together for the renewal of a 2,000 year old tradition of religious debate in the service of God’s truth.
Someone once called me the most contentious person he had ever known. Now I have met my match. Pope Benedict XVI is another truth-seeker.
We are in for interesting times.
I have read B16’s book. I have ordered Rabbi Neusner’s book. I am still looking for that (possibly apocryphal) imam.
Technorati tags: Books, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Religion in the Public Square.
