The Candy Man Can

Hey Candy Man, it's great to hear from you again. Thanks for your terrific post from earlier today, Doug, Jesus and Me. It sets a really positive interfaith tone, and I think helps set the stage for our interfaith dialogue/diablog, one in which our readers are invited to join in on.

It is New Year's Eve, and as we prepare to turn the corner to 2009 I don't have a lot of time tonight to write a full response to your post and share all of the things I've been thinking of regarding our diablog, re: the path to common ground over Jesus for Jews and Christians. However, I did want to address one aspect of all of this, that being my own interest in the subject. I am not a particularly religious person these days, but while I may not be a doctrinaire or regularly practicing Catholic, Jesus as a teacher and religious leader is very important to me. He is, in the words of Thich Naht Hahn, an "ultimate door" to knowledge of God and of the self. My desire find a way for Jews and Christians to be able to talk to one another about Jesus is not inspired by any need on my part to proselytize or convert. Quite the contrary! It simply has to do with my true belief that Jesus was a remarkable person, a dynamic teacher, and that there is much about him that could and should be re-examined, not only by Jews but by his very followers as well. I think that this endeavor has the real potential to completely transform the dynamic that has served to separate, oftentimes violently, Christians and Jews for over a thousand years.

As I said, I plan to post a lengthier response to Candy Man and his comments. I'm very excited about where our diablog will take us. We both have a great deal to learn from each other, and anyhow, it is always great to find a kindred spirit as you journey along life's highway. For now, I'll close by quoting the Preface of a fantastic and highly topical historical novel, When Jesus Became God. Written by George Mason University professor Richard Rubenstein, this book dramatizes the First Council of Nicea (325 CE), at which the Church first formally enunciated the official Church teaching on the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth and his co-equal status with God (Nicene Creed). Just consider that for a moment before you being reading: The Church had not officially declared Jesus to be one with God until 300 years after his crucifixion! I agree with Prof. Rubenstein: this is highly significant, vis-à-vis Jewish-Christian relations. I do not think it is even something that most Jews or Christians are even aware of. At any rate, the following passage reflects in no small part my own thoughts and feelings on the subject of Jesus as an interfaith bridge builder. So, enough of my yakkin'...

I told Fr. Joe that my interest (in studying about the Arian controversy) was in exploring the sources of religious conflict and the methods people have used to resolve it. I wanted to examine a dispute familiar enough to westerners to involve them deeply, but distant enough to permit some detached reflection. The Arian controversy, which was probably the most serious struggle between Christians before the Protestant Reformation, seemed to fit the bill perfectly...

Joe nodded, but he knew my account was incomplete. "And?"

"And there's something else," I responded with some hesitation. "I am a Jew born and raised in a Christian country. Jesus has been a part of my mental world since I was old enough to think. On the one hand, I have always found him an enormously attractive figure, challenging and inspiring. On the other... When I was little, growing up in a mixed Jewish-Catholic neighborhood, most of my playmates were Italian-American boys. They were friends, but I learned to stay in my own house on Good Friday, since after hearing the sermon at St. Joseph's Church, some of them would come looking for me to punish me for killing Christ. Once they caught me out on the street and knocked me down. 'But Jesus was a Jew!' I shouted through my tears. That idea, which they had never contemplated, infuriated them. It earned me a few extra kicks and punches."

Joe looked sorrowful, and I hastened to explain. "That's one side of the story. Sometimes it seems that Jesus has meant nothing but trouble for us. But the other side is that he can't be ignored. I don't worship Jesus, who - I'm sorry, Joe - I believe to have been a man, not God's Son. But what a man! I think that if his followers hadn't caused us so much trouble, we would consider him at least a tzaddik, a great sage. Perhaps even a prophet."

"I want to write about this controversy because it tells us so much about where we come from and what divides us. The story may even suggest how violent divisions can be healed. And, somehow, I believe that the figure of Jesus will play an important role in that healing. I think his life teaches us what it really means to be members of the human family."

Happy New Year! Shalom.

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome, by Dr. Richard E. Rubenstein (Amazon.com)

Jesus in Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue (The Institute of Interfaith Dialog)

In Praise of Christian-Jewish Interfaith Dialogue (JewsOnFirst.org)

Healing the Jewish-Christian Rift: Growing Beyond Our Wounded History, by Ron Miller and Laura Bernstein (Jewish Lights Publishing)