cover image Enduring Covenant: The Education of Christians and the End of Antisemitism

Enduring Covenant: The Education of Christians and the End of Antisemitism

Padraic O'Hare. Trinity Press International, $32.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-56338-186-7

While many books on Christian-Jewish relations by Christian authors focus on the history of Christian anti-Semitism, O'Hare takes the next logical step and focuses on Christian re-education that puts into practice both reverence for other faiths and the search for holiness. According to O'Hare, any christology, doctrine, preaching, prayer or catechesis must pass this litmus test: Does it reverence Judaism and its people? Does it further the path of holiness, of attentiveness to God? Any turn toward exclusivism, triumphalism, xenophobia or hatred, says O'Hare, cannot be called authentically holy. Yet O'Hare does not here call for the bland blurring of beliefs or the canceling of creeds in the name of universalism. Rather, he suggests that real dialogue happens when the particularity of one's religious tradition is embraced but not made normative. Thus, O'Hare argues that it is in the eucharist that Christians find the holiness and humility that prepares them for authentic interreligious dialogue. Revising christology, theological education and scriptural exegesis in light of the humility that the eucharist engenders, says O'Hare, will enable Christians to prepare themselves for a dialogue that can bring an end to Christian anti-Semitism. This is a passionately written book that asks Christians to undergo some serious theological reexamination. (Jan.)