Religious Pluralism and Jewish Identity

Overview

Recall questions on migration and Jewish-Christian dialogue, the Messiah and Jesus, observance in a secular society, exclusivism, inclusivism and Hick's pluralism, Persoff on Anglo-Jewry, and how Jewish identity is defined.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   How has migration shaped Jewish interfaith relations?

   Model answer

   Movement into Britain, western Europe and the Americas placed Jewish communities as small minorities among Christian majorities and, increasingly, alongside Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities in the same cities. That proximity made formal dialogue both possible and necessary, and it turned questions about shared civic space, education, faith schools and religious freedom into practical everyday matters.

2. 2

   What are the landmarks of Jewish-Christian dialogue?

   Model answer

   The Council of Christians and Jews was founded in Britain during the war to counter antisemitism. In 1965 the Roman Catholic Church repudiated the charge that Jews collectively bear guilt for the death of Jesus and condemned antisemitism, which changed the relationship fundamentally. In 2000 a group of Jewish scholars issued a statement setting out what Jews might now say positively about Christianity, though other Jewish voices thought it conceded too much.

3. 3

   What do Jews expect of the Messiah?

   Model answer

   A human being descended from David who will gather the exiles, rebuild the Temple, restore Torah observance and bring an era of universal peace and knowledge of God. Because these are public, verifiable conditions, Jewish tradition holds that the test of a messianic claim is whether the world has visibly changed. Reform Judaism reworked the expectation in the nineteenth century, replacing a personal Messiah in its liturgy with the hope of a messianic age brought nearer by human moral effort, a change Orthodox Jews reject.

4. 4

   Why have Jews not accepted messianic claims made for Jesus?

   Model answer

   Because on the Jewish criteria the transformation of the world did not occur, and because the Christian identification of the Messiah with God conflicts with Jewish belief about God's unity and incorporeality. Jews also reject the idea of a Messiah who returns later to complete the task, since the expectation is of a single, visible fulfilment. Groups presenting Christian belief in Jewish forms are not accepted as a form of Judaism by any of the Jewish movements. Messianic claims have caused argument inside Judaism too, as when some within the Chabad movement identified their late rebbe as the Messiah, which other Orthodox authorities condemned.

5. 5

   What practical issues does Jewish observance raise in a multicultural secular society?

   Model answer

   Shabbat and festival observance against employment and examination timetables, kosher provision in schools and hospitals, ritual slaughter and infant circumcision against animal welfare and medical objections, burial without delay and without post-mortem, the erection of an eruv boundary, and religious dress at work. Jewish communities have generally sought accommodation through law and negotiation, and the arguments recur wherever minority practice meets majority regulation.

6. 6

   What is the exclusivist position among Jewish attitudes to other faiths?

   Model answer

   That the covenant with Israel and the Torah given to it are the truth, and that other religions are in error where they conflict with it. This need not mean that non-Jews are condemned, since Jewish tradition also holds that righteous non-Jews have a share in the world to come, but it does mean that other traditions' distinctive claims are rejected rather than treated as alternative routes.

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