WHY INTER-RELIGIOUS CONFLICT
AND WHAT HOPE FOR INTER-RELIGIOUS PEACE?
CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM
WHAT CONFLICT?
In our modern society we feel comforted
that the public cries of ‘Christ-killer’, ‘well-
poisoner’ and ‘sorcerer’ of the Middle Ages
have long since died out. The church no
longer accuses Jewish people of being in
league with the devil nor believes forced
baptisms are an appropriate course of
action. It thus seems that despite this
often bloody and slanderous history,
Christianity and Judaism may have finally
reached an acceptable state of peace and
tolerance, and whilst anti-Semitism
regrettably remains a real presence in our
society, the issue no longer seems to be a
specifically Christian one. On entering this
debate one would not therefore be blamed
for asking ‘what conflict?’
Unfortunately many of the attitudes
towards Judaism that perpetuated so
much persecution remain under the
surface in present Christian understanding
of Judaism. History has shown that not
only do these attitudes carry a dangerous
risk of expression in acts of religious or
racial hatred, but that they hinder any
form of constructive dialogue between the
faiths that may enrich both.
Whilst there are many routes into
understanding the history and possible
future of Jewish-Christian relations a
particularly interesting one lies in the
shared sacred text that both faiths hold to.
It is on this avenue that we shall look at
what must be done to make people aware
of these underlying attitudes in order to
heal this rift, and overcome the impasse
that still largely prevents any form of
constructive dialogue between the faiths.
A PARTING OF WAYS
At its birth, Christianity was very much an
internal Jewish movement which hailed
Jesus as the long awaited saviour of the
chosen people of Israel, promised in the
scriptures since Moses. However, as this
message was quickly spread into the non-
Jewish world, the proportion of Jewish
adherents dwindled. It became clear that
despite Jesus’ relationship to the Jewish
nation and scriptures, the Jewish people at
large were paradoxically not going to be
involved in this movement. Somehow
Christians needed to work out how these
promises and laws apparently specific to
the Jewish people contained in scripture
were to apply to them as non-descendants
of Abraham. In this identity crisis of the
early centuries of Christianity, arguments
raged with some demanding that
Christians adopt Jewish practice and laws
to follow God and at the other end that
the God of Jewish scriptures was no more
than a vengeful demi-God.
It seemed convenient for many Christians
in fact, that most of what they would like
to say was contained in the gospel
accounts of Jesus and letters of the
apostles that came to be known as the
New Testament. There seemed to be little
problem with these texts, which largely
promoted God’s universal plan for the
salvation of all peoples. However, as these
texts referred to the Hebrew Scriptures as
authoritative and relied upon ideas set out
in these Jewish writings, most still wanted
to retain this Jewish inheritance. Yet whilst
it seemed useful to draw religious
authority from the Hebrew Scriptures,
stories of genocide (Joshua 10:40) and
suicide attacks (Judges 16:27-30)
seemingly sanctioned by God as well as
perplexing ritual laws also became difficult
to reconcile with the non-violent and
moral teachings of Jesus. The Hebrew
Scriptures became for many, as they do to
this day, like the voice of an embarrassing
grandparent in the room, occasionally
producing horrendously non-politically
correct remarks about ethnic minorities.
As most of us do when confronted with
such a situation, the Church’s reaction,
whilst not wanting to deny its existence,
was to disassociate itself with this history.
Somehow a solution had to be found
which could retain the Hebrew scriptures,
yet not tie Christianity down to its focus
on a particular ethnic group. The view that
came to dominate the Church was that
Christianity had somehow fulfilled or
replaced the now obsolete Jewish faith.
What was distinctly Jewish was labelled
the ‘Old’ Testament, and the superior
Christian New Testament teachings took
primary position as the definitive lens by
which all the Old could be read through.
This allowed Christians to diminish the
significance of much of the Hebrew
Scriptures, as that was from an earlier
time before the set up of the new
Christian way. In fact to the Christian,
history really doesn’t get started until the
coming of Christ (which is perhaps why
the entrance of Jesus sets the first century
Western calendar). All before became a
poor shadow of what has now arrived, as
the spiritual church had replaced the
original Jews as God’s chosen people.
COLONIALISATION OF THE HEBREW
SCRIPTURES
As Christianity developed, this underlying
attitude resulted in a remarkably narrow
minded approach to reading the Hebrew
Scriptures. The manner in which the
Hebrew Scriptures were handled became
comparable to the British Empire’s
colonising the supposedly ‘primitive’
cultures it annexed.
Underlying the British Empire’s expansion
was the assumption that the undeveloped
cultures it encountered would be very
much improved by the imposition of our
superior culture, and so suppressed the
wealth of indigenous culture by exporting
and imposing our ‘civilised’ education,
literature and culture upon these
‘fortunate’ recipients. Not being entirely
altruistic, the Empire was able to
recognise valuable material resources in
the primitive milieu and extracted such
assets from their former mismanaging and
incompetent owners.
Correspondingly, the Jews were seen as
the mismanaging owners of the Old
Testament, who need not be consulted in
extracting the valuable theological
diamonds occasionally buried within. After
all, the primitive Jew simply did not
understand the symbolic meaning of their
text: in their short-sightedness they saw
only a literal meaning in Old Testament
laws and consequently slavishly obeyed
such earthly rules and rituals. The
enlightened Christian however was above
such petty attempts to win God’s favour
and could disregard Jewish interpretation
of the texts. In effect, the Old Testament
could be reduced to a long-winded
account of a number of basic premises;
generally creation and Fall, then numerous
prophecies of the coming Christ which
offer proof and validity of the Christian
message. In this way the rich cultural
traditions and nuances outside of this
Christian mapping of this foreign territory
were then generally brushed aside in the
wake of this narrow minded extraction of
theological resources.
WIDENING THE RIFT
As this attitude formed, communication
and relations between Christianity and
Judaism subsequently broke down. As
understanding was lost, the Church began
to associate Judaism with all that
Christianity was not. As Paul preached
salvation through God’s grace as the
Christian message, it was merely assumed
that Jews did not believe in grace and
think their good deeds would merit
salvation. In addition, Jesus’
denouncements of the corrupt Jewish
authorities of his day in the New
Testament were read not as criticisms of
specific persons, but as a general
condemnation of the Jewish people.
Likewise the Gospel narrative of a small
number of Jewish leaders collaborating
with Roman authorities to kill Jesus was
transposed onto the Jewish people as a
whole as murderers of God. These
distortions of originally internal issues
within a Jewish culture into anti-Jewish
polemic resulted in Jews becoming
identified as the enemies of Christianity.
Whilst we do not have a clear picture of
the overall relationship between the faiths
during the rise of Christianity, the
movement at first received a mixed
reception from Jews. To many, Christianity
would have appeared as one of many
failed attempts to proclaim that the long
awaited messiah had come to liberate
Israel. The fact that Christians were
claiming that their great liberator had not
only failed to end Roman oppression but
been tried and killed as a criminal
unsurprisingly did not appeal much to
Judaism. Still, this did not prevent some
dialogue between members of the faith,
and Jewish-Christians at least would have
been allowed into some synagogues. On
one point however, the Christian’s claims
could not be merely overlooked. That
Christians worshiped a man named Jesus
and claimed him to be God was simply
unthinkable to the Jewish mentality. Such
blasphemy did not receive a positive
reception from some, and there is some
evidence to say some cases (perhaps
isolated) of Jews persecuting Christians
occurred.
By the time Christianity had grown to
become the dominant European power,
the seeds of miscommunication and anti-
Judaism had already been firmly planted.
The Jews became victim to ongoing
persecution and discrimination at the
hands of the Christian authorities.
Throughout the repeated violence,
accusations and denials of political rights
that the Jews suffered during the
Christianised Roman Empire, Middle Ages
and Christian dominated Europe a
distinctly negative view of Christianity was
understandably cemented in Judaism.
Eventually under the Nazis, the anti-
Semitic attitudes ingrained in European
culture culminated in the unthinkable.
Whilst the Nazis were by no means acting
on any Christian principles or authority,
the centuries of anti-Judaism the Church
had perpetuated in Europe meant that it
could not escape some responsibility for
the events that took place.
Given this tortured history of relations
with Christianity, it is understandable that
there is little desire for many Jews to now
engage on a level playing-field with
Christians.
WHY TALK NOW?
As history has shown, misunderstanding
seems to be one of the primary
contributors to conflict. Had the average
Christian over the centuries had even the
most basic understanding of Judaism it
would have been difficult to imagine how
the fear and belief that the Jews were the
enemy of Christianity could have arisen.
However, it would seem a distinctly
pessimistic stance to think that the only
motivation for inter-religious debate is to
avoid persecution. Whilst this duty is by
no means insignificant, it is important to
recognise the possibility that faith groups
could actually gain through
communication. The question then, is why
be interested in what the other group has
to say?
Firstly, it seems true that any religious
community must be willing to listen to
criticism, reassess and adapt. Any
religious, social or political organisation
will require renewal and repair at some
point. This is by no means a foreign idea
to the Jewish and Christian faiths. From
the earliest stages in each tradition,
judges, prophets and reforming
theologians and figures have repeatedly
been required to correct thinking and
practice as well as to direct the
community towards new directions and
restore its relevance to its world. One
cannot also listen only to internal voices,
as this is likely only to perpetuate the
same vices. Instead criticisms from
outside can be an invaluable voice if
considered seriously. Again, this is by no
means a radical idea. It was only through
engaging with external criticism and
heresy that theologians were pushed to
revise and form the doctrine and ideas
that we inherit today.
It is perhaps due to the common origins
and scripture though, that a promising
window to debate is available. As these
faiths developed in opposition to each
other, there was often a tendency to
define one’s own beliefs as the opposite of
the other. This is to say when one group
emphasised certain aspects of scripture,
the other would distance themselves from
that position. For example, when
Christians started to widely read a Jewish
translation of the Hebrew Scriptures
known as the Septuagint, Jews became
suspicious of the translation primarily
because of Christian interest in it. Such
reactions that diminish what were aspects
of one’s own tradition do no justice to
either group. However, it means that there
is now potential that discussion and inter-
religious peace may allow both traditions
to rediscover what has been lost in the
conflict.
For Christians, Judaism is in a unique
position to enrich Christian understanding
of the Hebrew Scriptures. By listening to
the fruits of 2000 years of Jewish practice
and reflection on the law, Christians may
find that a far richer and helpful
understanding can be gained. Perhaps
much of the unease many Christians feel
regarding the law of Moses could be set to
rest in this way. For the Jew, offering their
interpretations in conversation may be a
way in which to fulfil the children of
Abraham’s calling to be a blessing to all
the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:3).

HOW TO PROCEED?
In entering dialogue on a level playing
field there is the worry that one’s integrity
to one’s faith may be somehow
compromised. The thought may be that to
discuss theological matters with a group
of differing ideas that a watering down of
belief is inevitable. This fear may be down
to an assumption that inter-religious
dialogue must proceed by finding some
form of ‘lowest common denominator’
beliefs and basing all discussion upon this.
Such approaches that ignore differences
between groups may in fact only amount
to self-appreciation, as it is only the
reflection of one’s beliefs in the other that
is valued. Surely we would gain more by
going beyond talking about only those
matters on which there is agreement.
If dialogue proceeded by first recognising
that a number of unbridgeable gulfs exist
between the faiths, it would perhaps be
possible then to learn and be challenged
by a different perspective, whilst crucially
retaining fidelity to one’s own faith.
Specifically, a Jewish person need not
accept the divinity of Christ to learn from
other Christian ideas, and a Christian
similarly needn’t drop their beliefs to
realise that they don’t have a monopoly
on all Hebrew Scripture interpretation.
WHAT HOPE?
Despite the potential that exists for fruitful
dialogue, it must be asked how realistic
the prospect of significant change in
Jewish-Christian relations is. The tortured
history that lies between these groups will
not be laid to rest or healed quickly. The
steps that must be taken before a positive
future can be envisioned are likely to be
slow and careful. However, such crucial
steps have at least been made by both
sides in the last century. A number of
important Jewish thinkers have started to
ask in what respects Christianity may be a
valuable influence in introducing talk of
the God of Israel to the world. Likewise
Christian attempts to recognise their
historical responsibility for propagating
anti-Jewish attitudes have been in
statements such as Nostra Aetate by the
Catholic Church.
Perhaps then, a relationship can be forged
by learning from the other tradition,
through which respect can grow and the
other can be valued for and not despite
their differences.
If you’re interested in pursuing this
issue further, an excellent web
resource is:
www.jcrelations.net
Another key book on the topic is:
Kendall Soulen
The God of Israel and Christian
Theology
(Fortress Press)