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Historian: Pope’s new book advances Jewish-Christian dialogue

CWN - May 27, 2011

Giorgio Israel, a professor of the history of science at the Sapienza University of Rome, has lauded Pope Benedict’s new book in an essay written for the Vatican newspaper.

The second volume of Jesus of Nazareth, says Israel, removes “the final stone on the path of dialogue, when it definitively clarifies that the responsibility in the trial and condemnation of Jesus is imputable only to a restricted group of Jews and cannot in any way be attributed to the Jewish people as a whole, much less to successive generations.”

“Having removed this obstacle, the dialogue enters into the heart of the argument: ‘After centuries of opposing positions, we recognize as our duty that these two ways--Christian and Jewish--of reading the Biblical writings must enter into dialogue with each other to correctly understand the will and word of God.’”

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  • Posted by: TheJournalist64 - May. 28, 2011 12:28 PM ET USA

    Not so fast. A careful reading of JON Vol 2 leaves the distinct impression that Ratzinger the theologian is abandoning or soft-pedaling the Church's universal mission. Specifically our mission to preach the true Messiah to the Jews. This definitely needs clarification. No, not all the Jews clamored for Jesus's death, because not all were in Jerusalem. But it goes beyond the biblical text to say that Jewish responsibility was restricted. He was rejected everywhere in Israel.

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