Post-Holocaust Jewish–Christian Dialogue

Alan L. Berger is Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair of Holocaust Studies, director of the Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz, and professor of Jewish studies at Florida Atlantic University.

• Introduction, Alan L. BergerChapter 1: A Medication on Hope, Elie WeiselChapter 2: A Positive Jewish Theology of Christianity, Irving GreenbergChapter 3: Vatican II, The Passion of the Christ, and the Future of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue, Alan L. BergerChapter 4: Though the Messiah May Tarry: A Reflection on Redemption in Our Time, David PattersonChapter 5: Speaking of the Middle East: Jews and Christians in Dialogue and Dispute, Amy-Jill LevineChapter 6: Christian-Muslim-Jew: The Necessary Trialogue, James CarrollChapter 7: What Have You Done? Wrestling with the Sixth Commandment, John K. RothChapter 8: Redeeming Sacred Texts from their Sacrilegious Uses, Mary C. BoysChapter 9: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust: Toward an Honest Assessment, John T. PawlikowskiChapter 10: Human Dignity and Jewish-Christian Relations, Donald J. Dietrich

Ever since the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate (1965), there has been a dramatic positive shift in Catholic perspectives of Jews, a shift nurtured by ecclesiastical declarations seeking common religious ground between the church and the synagogue. Likewise, mainstream Protestant denominations have taken a strong position against the 'teaching of contempt,' projected on Jews by Christians for two millennia, as errant scriptural reading and bad theology. Appreciating what was done, adjudicating what is being done, and conjecturing what must be done between two Abrahamic faith communities is the nexus of this collection. Berger brings together the first ten lectures delivered at FAU's Annual May Smith Lectures in Post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian Dialogue by Jewish and Christian scholars (Elie Wiesel, Irving Greenberg, Alan Berger, David Patterson, Amy-Jill Levine, James Carroll, John Roth, Mary Boys, John Pawlikowski, Donald Dietrich). Restoring shattered Jewish and Christian belief, behavior, and theology related to God, the Torah, people, and land is the challenge; shared dialogue in restoring the world (tikkun `olam) is the rainbow; and the hope of Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel is the mission. This is an engaging read. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.