The Enduring Covenant: The Education of Christians and the End of Antisemitism.

Padraic O'Hare's The Enduring Covenant: The Education of Christians and the End of Antisemitism (Trinity Press International, 1997) is a genuine contribution to Jewish-Christian dialogue and should prove to be a major resource for all Christian educators intent on eliminating "the teaching of contempt." O'Hare reviews Jules Isaac's famous eighteen points in "Has Anti-Semitism Roots in Christianity?" and insists that theological anti-Judaism, though a matter of sincere conviction, "gives rise to hatred and not only to benign hope that Jews will see the light and convert." His book grows out of a recognition that Christian teaching needs radical reexamination in the light of the Shoah; it would be all the more effective, however, if he had made it clear that Christians who draw on traditional theology may also be genuine allies in the struggle against anti-Judaism - some gave heroic witness to this fact by rescuing Jews during the years of Nazi terror.

O'Hare links his teaching of reverence for Judaism to a broader and more complex argument for religious pluralism, quoting Krister Stendahl's pointed reminder that "from God's Perspective we are all minorities." He enlists other distinguished names familiar to Cross Currents readers - from Heschel and Tracy to Panikkar and Rahner - in his critique of Christian absolutism, whose essence he finds in claims about Christ. His exposition is not always satisfactory, however, because he marshalls so many brief citations from disparate authors that the reader does not easily reach an adequate understanding of their various positions. The danger is that his challenging formulation - "the radical Christocentism ... in the tradition of universalist Christian claims ... is religion as a source of brutality" (36) - will seem convincing only to those who already agree with him. O'Hare's argument against Christian exclusivism would be convincing to a wider audience if he presented other sources as fully as he does Gabriel Moran, where he makes good use of the latter's distinction between exclusive and inclusive uniqueness (cf. also Cross Currents, Winter 1992).

O'Hare deserves credit for forcing us to recognize the tension that often exists between our desire for some universally valid pattern of belief and Panikkar's conviction that "the whole idea of belonging to a chosen People (in the triumphalist, exclusivist sense), of practicing the true religion, of being a privileged creature, struck me not as a grace but as a disgrace." O'Hare sees clearly that "all seek faithfulness, but paths are particular" (44) and draws on Stendahl to respond to the frequent Christian critique of Jewish "chosenness":

Christians have often ridiculed if not denounced this particularism and described it as an arrogance claiming that Jews in their tribalism consider God only concerned with Israel. Far from it.... In a plural world there is great wisdom in the awareness that the revelation that has come to me through Scripture and tradition calls me to be faithful in a manner that does not include but excludes the obligation of proving all others wrong or inferior.

O'Hare is no relativist and could easily have expanded his book by drawing on resources in Christian tradition to support "belief about Jesus Christ and the experience for Christians of Jesus Christ as the Near Presence of the Holy One." In dealing with traditional Christology, however, he might more usefully have summarized the position of a sophisticated contemporary representative of such a position, and then pointed out its shortcomings. This would also have increased the value of his fine chapter on Gabriel Moran's contribution to education in religiousness.

The Enduring Covenant climaxes with a modest but perceptive chapter on "The Genius of Judaism," correcting persistent Christian stereotypes on the Jewish understanding of law, chosenness, and land. O'Hare is surely correct to quote Leon Klenicki that "most Jews see this tie to the land as essential to their Jewishness." He believes that a repair of Jewish-Christian relations calls for an embrace of Zionism, but makes no mention of the continuing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Whatever its omissions, The Enduring Covenant merits the praise of Carol Ochs: "In a generation where individuals and whole communities have justified their use of violence in terms of their religious tradition, it is a blessing to have Padraic O'Hare show the way beyond anti-Judaism and, indeed, all triumphalism, and guide people to grow in charity, justice, and courage in the pursuit of compassion."

JOSEPH CUNNEEN