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Time to Meet: Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations

What issues are currently challenging us?

by Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

On Friday, July 16, 1999, the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews-Alberta, together with the Calgary Jewish Centre, had the honour of hosting a brunch with keynote speaker Rev. Marcus Braybrooke.

The Rev. Braybrooke is author of several books, including: Time To Meet: Towards a deeper relationship between Jews and Christians. He is an eminent leader in ecumenical and interfaith work for over 30 years: Joint President of the World Congress of Faiths and associated with the International Interfaith Centre at Oxford, the International Peace Council, and the Council for the Parliament of World Religions. In the 1980s he was the Executive Director of the Council of Christians and Jews in the United Kingdom. He wrote a history of the CCJ in Britain entitled, Children of One God.

When Rev. Braybrooke started his work with the Council of Christians and Jews in 1984, he was then told in no uncertain terms, that ‘Theology,’ the ‘State of Israel,’ and ‘Mission’ were subjects “out of bounds.” He compared this to visiting a restaurant and ordering something exquisite from the menu, only to be informed that the desired fare was presently not available. It was rather like walking on eggshells. Those on the Board of the Council who were advocating this approach feared that the discussion of theology, Israel and mission would degenerate into controversial political agendas, conversion of ‘the other’ and divisions. However, the CCJ eventually did choose to discuss theology and Israel, and there were resignations from the Council because of this.

Last May, Rev. Braybrooke attended the Religion and Violence, Religion and Peace conference at Auschwitz. The conference had representatives from Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities. Theological explorations have striven to enter into the rich spirituality of all three faiths. A three-fold focus of dialogue was identified and explored: 1) a dialogue of the head with an emphasis on intellectual matters; 2) a dialogue of the heart, beginning to see “the other” from their standpoint, 3) a dialogue of the hands, asking questions like: “What are we able to do for others?”

According to Marcus Braybrooke and other scholars, some Jewish-Christian dialogue “has gotten stuck.” Rabbi David Rosen, the President of the International Council of Christian and Jews has described the present state of dialogue as “a treading of water.” In an ecumenical journal, the dialogues were recently characterized as “unfinished agenda.”

”To use a metaphor,” Braybrooke said, “it’s rather similar to climbing a mountain. Now we’ve perhaps reached a plateau, but we cannot be content with remaining on the plateau because we see other and higher peaks ahead. We need to journey on. However, while on this plateau, it’s important that we celebrate the progress made thus far in the Jewish-Christian relationship.”

One of the reasons for getting stuck in our dialogues is that both Jews and Christians have to contend with internal problems. The divisions within the Jewish community and among the churches are nearly as bad as — or in some cases even worse than — the divisions between Jews and Christians.

The Rev. Braybrooke observed that in Britain there is a lessening of the ties, which bind the Jewish community together. It seems to him that until recently the Shoah, antisemitism and anti-Judaism held the Jewish community closer together — perhaps more so than devotion to God. There was, for a long time, a very deep concern for the physical survival of the Jewish people, which has lessened considerably. In a generally tolerant pluralist Britain with an increasing number of interfaith marriages the struggle to define Jewish identity and to secure the survival of Judaism in the Diaspora has come more to the fore. Serious divisions continue to exist between Orthodox and more moderate and liberal communities. Tensions also exist between the more moderate Orthodox and the ultra-Orthodox.

In the Christian world, there is a growing tension between the eastern Orthodox churches and mainline Protestant churches within the World Council of Churches. The Roman Catholic church is still not a member of the WCC. According to Rev. Braybrooke, progressive Christians have taken the lead in Jewish-Christian and other interfaith dialogues. This has led, in some instances, to a marginalization of Christians committed to dialogues within the larger Christian world.

Christians in North America and Europe are more concerned about Jewish-Christian dialogue than those in the Two-Third’s World. Due to their circumstances, African churches are more committed to Christian-Muslim relations. As part of this problem, the WCC has been reluctant to bring issues of Jewish-Christian relations to the floor of the Assemblies because it wants to avoid the condemnation of Israel which would no doubt be the result of heated political debates about the situation in the Middle-East.

Rev. Braybrooke told his receptive audience that the task facing us in Christian-Jewish relations is threefold: 1) make known more widely the advancements in Jewish-Christian relations, especially the statements made by almost all mainline churches; 2) enlarge the dialogue (sometimes called ‘trialogue’ which is of course not a Greek word) to include Muslims; 3) develop in each community a ‘theology of the other.’

Christians have, for the most part, accepted the fact that Jesus was a faithful Jew. It is widely recognized now that the Romans and not the Jews were ultimately responsible for the death of Jesus. We also know that Paul was not anti-Torah. In light of all this, Braybrooke suggests we modify the traditional Christian view, held for centuries, that there is no salvation outside the church. We should take the approach of William Cantwell Smith and not just refer to Christians when we say “Lord have mercy on us,” but to all of humanity. In their relation to Jews Christians have to understand the Jewish ‘No’ to Jesus in order to prevent further Christian anti-Judaism and antisemitism.

The Rev. Braybrooke appealed to Christians to develop a new view of Islam, one that is not based on the mass-media’s frequent depiction of Muslims as extremists and fundamentalists. It is true that most Muslims take the Qur’an quite literally. But Jewish and Christian biblical scholars in dialogue with Muslims are exploring other hermeneutic methods. A Muslim told the Rev. Braybrooke on one occasion, that, unfortunately, for many Muslims the message that God is great becomes confused with the view that Islam is great, which, in turn, leads to the claim that Islam is superior to all other faith traditions.

Braybrooke also critiqued the media for its negative coverage of Islam. For example, it was not considered news-worthy that, during the recent conflict in Yugoslavia, Muslims of that nation were concerned about the preservation of Christian holy places. He also pointed out that in Sudan, Muslims along with others denounced human rights abuses, yet, for the most part, the media ignores these denunciations.

One of the pressing questions for us all is: How do we speak about God in a century that has witnessed horrific events like the Shoah? It is incumbent upon us to speak in ways that are not offensive or meaningless but respectful of the authenticity of our different faith traditions with their attendant moral-ethical and spiritual values, upon which a new world order must be based. A new world order in which every human life is valued and respected, concluded the Rev. Braybrooke. “We are called to pray and work for the coming of God’s realm.”

The Rev. Helen Belcher, President of the CCCJ-Alberta, moderated a wide array of inquiries: everything from multifaith relations, the relationship of culture and religion, the problem of interfaith marriages and spirituality without religious affiliation to discerning whom we dialogue with, considering the warning of idolatry. Rev. Braybrooke patiently reflected on most of these questions.

He told us that a number of different international dialogue configurations are active today, including, for example, bilateral dialogues between Jews and Muslims, Christians and Muslims, in Britain even between Jews and Jains and other eastern religions.

”People active in interfaith dialogues tend to be zealous human rights advocates,” he said, “hence, there is the danger of derailing dialogues by focusing on how other faith traditions violate human rights.”

While he favours dialogues inclusive of the widest possible range of faiths and ideologies, Braybrooke also wants people to remain grounded in their own faith tradition so that the dialogues are not reduced to something superficial and meaningless. He maintains, however, that it is important to focus on what is central to our faith traditions and not being hung up on less important matters. When asked about the ultimate purpose of interfaith relations, Braybrooke expressed his commitment to unity in diversity. The authenticity and particularity of each faith needs to be maintained and, at the same time, respect for the faith of the other and learning from the other needs to be encouraged. “Respecting each other and learning from and with each other can lead to our common celebration of our diversity.”

The event, attended by about 80 people from diverse faith backgrounds, was rounded out by everyone joining hands and the Rev. Martin Lynas leading us in the singing of the customary “Shalom.”