This section takes its name from a wonderful volume edited by Rabbi Leon Klenicki, Toward a Theological Encounter: Jewish Understandings of Christianity (Mahwah: Paulist/Stimulus, 1991). It has long been noted, by John Pawlikowski and others, that the Jewish community has never subjected itself to the discipline of attempting official joint statements that would be the counterpart to the numerous Christian statements of the Catholic and Protestant Churches. In part, this is because of the asymmetrical nature of the history of persecution of Jews by Christians and the teaching of contempt, and in part it is because of the distinctive nature of Jewish religious polity. But it has resulted in a lack of systematic response by the Jewish community to Christian outreach in our time (with the major exception of Eugene Borowitz, Contemporary Christologies: A Jewish Response (NY: Paulist, 1980)). By involving Jewish scholars from across a goodly percentage of the Jewish spectrum, Klenicki (Reform) brings together in one volume a representative sampling of informed Jewish opinion on the theological issues that unite, divide, and continue to challenge Jewish and Christian dialogical reflection in the waning days of the twentieth century of our relationship. Included are S. David Breslauer of the University of Kansas (Reform), David Dalin of the University of Hartford (Conservative), Elliot Dorff of the University of Judaism-LA (Conservative), Walter Jacob of CCAR, David Novak of the University of Virginia (Conservative), Norman Solomon of the Centre for the Study of Judaism at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England (Orthodox), and Michael Wyschogrod, Professor Emeritus of Baruch College, CUNY (Orthodox). If there ever is a group called together to issue a common Jewish response to the dialogue, this volume should be required reading.

Also from the Jewish side, Jacob Neusner (now of the University of South Florida) has become increasingly, and in my view helpfully, involved in the dialogue. Though never one to be accused of understating his positions, his works will reward careful and discerning reading. With due deference to Arthur Cohen, for example, Neusner's Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition (London: SCM and Philadelphia: Trinity, 1991) argues forcefully that Jewish and Christian traditions represent "different people talking about different things to different people" over the centuries and hardly anything that can be characterized as a true dialogue such as we are at least striving for today.

Similarly, Telling Tales: Making Sense of Christian and Judaic Nonsense (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993) delves through the history of Judeo-Christian "monologues" and seeks to discover for today "a Judaic way of telling the Christian tale of Jesus Christ" and "a Christian telling of the Judaic tale - Israel instead of Adam." Neusner remains capable of the well-turned phrase; e.g. "good will makes bigots into hypocrites" (p. 80). That line alone is worth the price of admission.

Harold Kasimov and Byron Sherwin have edited a fitting tribute to a man whose contribution to the dialogue continues to be profound. No Religion Is an Island: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Interreligious Dialogue (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991) begins with a moving foreword by Cardinal Johannes Willebrands recalling Heschel's role at the time of the Second Vatican Council. There are also essays by his daughter, Susannah; Daniel Berrigan, with whom Heschel co-founded "Clergy Concerned about the War" in the mid- 1960s; John C. Bennett of Union Theological Seminary in New York; the late Jerzy Kosinski; Heschel scholar John C. Merkle of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN; Muslim scholar Riffat Hassan; Hindu Arvind Sharma, and myself among others.

Susannah Heschel and I also have essays in Clark Williamson's A Mutual Witness: Toward Critical Solidarity Between Jews and Christians (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press), wich contains the papers and discussions from a 1991 conference at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. A. Roy Eckardt and Williamson give Protestant responses to the theme question, "Is There a Christian Mission to the Jews?" Not surprisingly, though for different reasons and in different ways, the four of us answer "No" to the common question. The organizers perhaps unwittingly skewed the symmetry of the event and of the volume somewhat by inviting Jewish liberation theologian Marc H. Ellis of the Maryknoll School of Theology. Ellis, who has little time for any agenda item other than his own, declared the Jewish-Christian dialogue "dead" and went on to tell us how to go "beyond the ecumenical dialogue," which is to say to adopt his views as our own. Despite this distraction, there is much in the volume to challenge Christian thought on mission and evangelization.

Catholic scholar Gabriel Moran, who is professor of religious education at New York University, relentlessly pursues the concept of Uniqueness: Problem or Paradox in Jewish and Christian Traditions (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992). More than simply a study in the language of dialogue, Moran probes what we mean by the use of the term in reference to revelation, covenant, holocaust and Christ. Frans Jozef van Beek, SJ, has written previously on Catholic identity. Now he attempts to make a contribution to the dialogue with Loving the Torah More than God? Towards a Catholic Appreciation of Judaism (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1989). The title is taken from a 1955 radio address by Emmanuel Levinas, which is here translated. Also published here, Zvi Kolitz' 1947 Holocaust "parable" Yossel Rakover's Appeal to God. Beek adds his own spiritual reflection to those of Levinas to develop a powerful, short meditation that will be of interest to Jews as well as Christians.

Two volumes of more general theological reflection may be of interest in the context of this bibliographical survey. Francis A. Sullivan, SJ, Salvation Outside the Church? (Mahwah: Paulist, 1992) traces the history and various interpretations of the patristic phrase extra ecclesiam nulla salus over the centuries. This much misunderstood phrase (as late as the mid- 20th century Jesuit Father Leonard Feeney was excommunicated for teaching a literal interpretation of it) has been much abused by Christians. Sullivan here attempts to set the record straight. Maura O'Neill, Women Speaking, Women Listening: Women in Interreligious Dialogue (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 199-0) is not just about Jewish-Christian relations but aims, as its introduction states, "toward a genuine approach to religious pluralism" reflecting recent trends in epistemology, communication and value theory, and seeking to discern 'Is religion liberating?" for women.

I will conclude this theological survey with reference to A. Roy Eckardt's Reclaiming the Jesus of History: Christology Today (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992). Eckardt, one of the great pioneers of Christian-Jewish relations, here joins Paul van Buren in the effort to integrate perspectives gained from the dialogue into mainstream Systematic Theology. After some preliminaries, Eckardt presents and reflects upon "five historical images" of Jesus: "countercultural spiritualizer", "rejected advocate of Israel's restoration"; "champion of Israel"; "Liberator of the Wretched"; and "Redeemer of Women." In "From Jesus to Christ" he discusses "the Christs of the Apostolic Writings"; engages in dialogue with van Buren, Paul F. Knitter, and John Macquarrie; and reviews and refines his controversial views on the Resurrection. Only someone who has spent a lifetime of quiet study and free-flowing debate could have produced this provocative and significant volume.

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