A Jew, the Christian Savior – Jesus of Nazareth, Christ and Lord

Abstracts of no more than 300 words, either in English or in French, as well as a bio-bibliographic notice (100-150 words), should be sent to liz.lambert lsrs.lu by April 15, 2020.

The authors will receive a notification of acceptance before April 30.

Rationale

The International Conference organized in Luxembourg follows the one held in Vienna in January 2019, the proceedings of which will soon be published by Mohr & Siebeck under the title Christologie zwischen Christentum und Judentum: Jesus, der Jude aus Galiläa und der christliche Erlöser. This conference brought into the centre of Christian theology the historical, theological and cultural fact that Jesus is a Jew. The contributions allow us to take a look at the big picture without, however, offering a unified vision of this topic.

The aim of the Luxembourg Conference is to make a contribution to this line of thought by asking two questions that shape our interpretation of the fact that Jesus is Jewish:

• firstly, what are the intentions that guide our reflective, theological, but also ecclesiastical approach, and
• secondly, how must the forms of theologizing evolve so that we can integrate in a meaningful way, a way capable of transforming intellectual, social, as well as legal and political practices, a fact that we certainly do not ignore.

These two topics are closely intertwined, as we can show by addressing them one after the other.

The question of what the theologians’ intentions are is important. We shall ask them what they are looking for: What do you want to know, to do, to obtain? Do you want to develop your personal and institutional relationship with Christ who is the man Jesus of Nazareth? Do you want to give more importance to the historical fact and thus explore the gap that is being created between this man and our time? Do you want to review the Christians’ relationships with the Jewish believers and with the Jewish community, knowing that the Scriptures contain words that are shocking to our ears, and therefore build a new relationship with texts from another era? Are you looking to re-read your tradition taking into account the alterations it has undergone and that you would not like to see repeated? Are you looking to put your practices from the founding texts back in the business? Would you be dissatisfied with the current state of theologies, which would be more inclined to conjure up the Jewish heritage than to make it an integral part of theologizing? What is also your reluctance, what are your objections to moving forward in this area? What are their implicit motivations? There are indeed many statements on this topic, but it is clear that these statements are not enough to allow the new relations to transform the theological practices and their different contents. There are legacies that have had a greater impact on current theological and even more liturgical practices than the relationship to the biblical sources of faith.

This problem automatically leads to a second aspect, that of the forms of theologizing. I understand by form all that contributes in our psyche to organizing the information that reaches us through the senses, both what is retained and what connects it. The elements that contribute to the form of thinking are as much the language as the perspective adopted, the extent of our knowledge, etc. We inherit specific forms of thinking – be it from scholasticism or the Enlightenment or the natural sciences. We can become aware of them, and we can also try to transform them.

If form and content are related, it is impossible to introduce new data without changing the form. New data can be incorporated by adding a foreign element or by revaluing an aspect that had been ignored or hidden until then. To affirm or to revalue the fact that Jesus is Jewish – which is beyond doubt but could be neglected by a soteriology called “from above” – cannot leave unaltered the form in which we practice theology or according to which we theologize.

If the verb “to theologize” has lately been constantly preferred to the noun “theology”, this indicates that theologizing is a human activity for which those who practice it are also responsible. It also means that they can develop a multitude of forms of theologizing; the Scriptures – the noun itself expresses plurality – reflect this. All human action is part of a more global context; it is not simply a product of one single faculty of the soul or, to use an ancient expression, of our reason.

Theologizing is a human act, an act that is part of our relationships. Can we still work within the forms and frameworks that systematic theology once promoted? Are they adapted to an approach, to a theologizing born from a different context and that aims to incorporate historical data? What place, for example, do historical and exegetical studies that address the opposition between Jesus and the Jews and between Christians and Jews in the New Testament from a novel perspective (e.g., Boyarin, 2012) occupy within the field of systematic theology? What does it mean for other contents, especially in soteriology, to include a revision of the relationship between Christians and Jews that differs from the version expressed in certain neo-testamentary texts? What forms should we develop in order to integrate the fact that Jesus is indeed a Jew into a current theologizing? How far is that possible? How can we do it? The deconstruction is easy; the way to a new synthesis, to a coherent work more difficult. Among others, we would like to explore one avenue: that of the arts, and of literature in particular. What can theologians learn from literary authors and other artists? How must language and imagination be transformed and combined? What would also be the purpose of this theologizing? This brings us back to the question of our intentions.

In addition to these two issues, there are two other relevant topics on which we will not focus at this conference, but which we are worth pointing out because they are related to the previous two: the first one concerns the scope of theologizing in the Christian field, whilst the second one is related to the scope of dialogue in the way Jews look at themselves when they are so intensely focused on one of their own whose heritage has taken on a global dimension.

In fact, the first question is to locate the theologizing in a project involving the community and the society: what can a discourse do, what are its limits, what other means must be implemented so that the objective proposed can be achieved? In addition to the Magisterium’s documents advocating, for example, that there should be an introduction to Judaism within the ratio studiorum of future clergymen, there are also many local initiatives as well as legal aspects and other approaches to be taken into account. The other question is more delicate because it may seem to present a hold of the Christian theology on Jews. It remains however an essential question, provided that a dialogue engages each of the partners to think differently. How then does the dialogue with Christians affect the Jewish theologizing? How can the Jews think of themselves when they rediscover the other part of the family from which they have suffered so many injustices as still being part of the family?

In their presentations, therefore, the participants should not only think of integrating the historical contribution – the fact that Jesus is a Jew, but they should also highlight the intellectual and cultural challenges, and concretely the research on the forms as well as on the aporias which result from this for a current theologizing. They will have to constantly articulate both thought and its conditions of possibility.

30-minute presentations, followed by a discussion.

Organizers

• Prof. Jean Ehret, Luxembourg School of Religion & Society
• Prof. Walter Homolka, School of Jewish Theology, Potsdam; Abraham Geiger Kolleg, Berlin

Institutional partners

• Luxembourg School of Religion & Society
• School of Jewish Theology, Potsdam

Venue

International Conference from July 14 to 16, 2020
Luxembourg School of Religion & Society
Centre Jean XXIII
52, rue Jules Wilhelm
L-2728 Luxembourg