A Public Dialogue: Contemporary Questions about Covenant(s) and Conversion

In recent years, several controversies have beset official relations between Jews and Catholics. These include whether Catholics should pray for the conversion of Jews, whether the purpose of interreligious dialogue is to lead others to Christian faith, and whether Catholics should undertake non-coercive "missions" to Jews. An underlying theological topic in all these disputes is how the biblical concept of "covenant" is understood in the Jewish and Catholic traditions and in terms of their interrelationship. The resolution of these questions could set the pattern of official Catholic-Jewish relations for many years. In a public dialogue of these matters, Dr. Edward Kessler from Cambridge University in Great Britain and Dr. Philip A. Cunningham, Director of the Jewish-Catholic Institute at St. Joseph’s University presented and discussed their own analyses of the present situation.