8. Does dialogue with Jews threaten the integrity of Christian faith?
By no means, though problems of faith can and sometimes do arise. Differences
between
the two traditions run deep. For example, the Jewish insistence on the
oneness of God
sometimes challenges Christians to explore more fully the distinctively
Christian Trinitarian
teaching, namely, that God is one substance in three persons. This teaching,
in all its truth about
the complexity of God's unity, begins and ends in mystery. So does the
Jewish understanding of
God. Exploring the inexhaustible mystery of the one God is our common calling
and our
common destiny.
As another example, our Christian claim that Jesus is God's Messiah will
inevitably
confront the several different understandings of "Messiah" held by Jews
at various times in the
past and even today. Christians in the dialogue have to come to grips with
these differences
and, more importantly, with the simple fact that people of deep faith and
religious integrity
embody them. That can be unsettling. It can also be inspiring to discover
that people with such
different faith understandings can and do love, honor, worship, and serve
the same God, the
only God there is.
Both Christians and Jews in our era testify repeatedly that participation
in ongoing dialogue
strengthens their commitment to their own tradition even as it increases
their appreciation of the
other. More often than not mutual respect, mutual admiration, even mutual
love result. Thank
God.