Theological Coexistence

Ever since 13 Jews sat together at the Last Supper, in the historic dawn of a new church, the conversion of the Jews has been Christianity's hope, but there have been few signs of fulfillment. Now some Protestants seem to be launching a new movement to proselytize the Jews, reports Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg in the Christian Century. But, warns Hertzberg, it will not work, and should not be tried.

A leading proponent of Jewish conversion, Presbyterian Minister George E. Sweazey (TIME, May 4), argues that Jews are ripe to become Christians because "many Jews in America scarcely have a religion" and that "even those who cherish a strong sense of the Judaic tradition often seem to hold it as a sort of super-intense patriotism." Conservative Rabbi Hertzberg (of Temple Emanu-El, Englewood, N.J.) denies both these statements. American Jews may be losing their identity as an ethnic minority, but the percentage affiliated with synagogues has risen strikingly. Many of the new members seek togetherness rather than real religion, but Hertzberg thinks Christian sects have similar problems.

"American Jews," says Hertzberg, "do not look to the church down the street as the bearer of a pure faith, undefiled by what is wrong with contemporary America--if only because its minister is quite likely to be telling all who will listen that the struggle for piety is as hard a fight among Christians as among Jews. There can be camaraderie in this battle, but there is no overwhelming evidence that it is more nearly won at one end of the street than at the other."

Rabbi Hertzberg realizes that peaceful theological coexistence with the Jews--advocated by leading Christian theologians, including Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich--would be something of a revolution for traditionally proselytizing Christianity, but he thinks that practice in coexistence might be valuable. "Today," he says, "Christianity is the religion of the West and primarily of whites." But Eastern religions, once passive, are showing renewed vitality and missionary zeal. "A revived Christian evangelism reasserting its 'Great Commission' to convert, and hence to dissolve, all other faiths, will not only embarrass America before the world; it will undercut our foreign policy and lend new fuel to the appeal of Communism in the East . . . Let us stand separately for our various truths. Let us stand together for the peace of society. Let us not do to one another that which is hateful to any of us. And let us await the judgment of God."

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