Last week the Vatican issued a “Reflection” on Jewish-Christian relations, updating its doctrine on the connection between the two religions. The document declares that the Torah remains a binding covenant and a potential path to putting Jews in “right relationship” with God. Contrary to what was widely reported in the press, however, it does not forbid, or even actively discourage, the effort to bring Jews to Christianity, although it makes a point of not actively encouraging it, either. Yoram Hazony evaluates the statement’s implications:
[T]he “Reflection” demonstrates an intense desire on the part of the Church to rebuild Catholic theology so as to put an end to nearly two millennia of Christian hostility toward Judaism. The document repeatedly and explicitly renounces the mainstream medieval view according to which the Christian “New Covenant” has replaced or superseded the Jewish people’s covenant with the God of Israel. . . .
These are changes that Jews should obviously welcome. . . . [However], it is important to note that the “Reflection” is not an endorsement of the idea that there are two different possible routes to salvation. . . . The commission [that authored it] thus holds what to Jews must appear to be two irreconcilable and contradictory views: on the one hand, that the Torah is sufficient for “a successful life in right relationship with God”; on the other, that the Christian teaching is “the universal and therefore also exclusive” way of doing God’s will. . . . [Indeed], we must be prepared for the possibility that the Church will never be ready to take the step of calling on Christians to refrain from mission and witness directed toward Jews.
It is not clear, however, that we should view this as such a terrible thing. Jews have many interests that may be advanced through practical cooperation with Christians, and the number of such common concerns seems only to be growing with time. An alliance on issues of common concern does not . . . require some kind of theological “end-of-conflict” agreement between Jewish and Christian theology as a precondition. On the contrary, there is much to be lost in seeking such an agreement.
Read more on Torah Musings: http://www.torahmusings.com/2015/12/what-the-vatican-didnt-say-and-what-it-did/