“To Proclaim the Cross of Christ as the Sign of God’s All-Embracing Love” 1: A Response to David Neuhaus on “Salvation

and the Jews”

By Rev. Andrew Liaugminas, S.T.D.

When it comes to the topic of “Salvation and the Jews,” one could pursue various avenues of inquiry, ranging from the soteriological self-understanding of the Jews to the unique and fundamental role the Jewish people play in the Christian understanding of salvation. Yet, our focus here lies in neither of these topics per se, but in how a Christian should understand the relationship of Israel outside the Church to the salvation that comes from Christ and his Church. Stated succinctly, Neuhaus asks, “Whereas the Church indeed affirms that our salvation is from the Jews, where is salvation for the Jews from according to Church teaching?”

In his lecture, “Salvation and the Jews,” Neuhaus discusses various significant elements for answering this question, including God’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham (Romans 11:29), the rediscovery of the Jewishness of Jesus, respect for our Jewish brothers and sisters, and hope for a final, eschatological convergence of the Jewish expectation for the Messiah and the Christian hope in the Second Coming of Christ (Romans 11:26). In the meantime, Neuhaus suggests that the proper posture of the Church vis-à-vis the Jewish people is to witness “to a Jesus Christ who brings the fullness of salvation,” for “Jews who seek to live Torah are ‘not far from the Kingdom of God’ (Mark 12:34).”

In my remarks, I would like to engage a few of these points in particular and then extend the dialogue on how these elements might come together to form a Catholic response to the question regarding where salvation for the Jews is from according to Church teaching. First, I will discuss the place of the Church in connection with the universal centrality of Christ for salvation. Second, I will engage how we are to understand the soteriological import of God’s fidelity vis-àvis Israel. Third, I will consider the place of fidelity to the commandments of the Torah in relationship to the salvation that Christ has won for us. Fourth, I will explore briefly the centrality of the Paschal Mystery and the agency of the Holy Spirit in the participation of those outside the Church in the mystery of salvation. This will lead me, finally, to raise a point about mission, witness, and the role of the Church today. The primary theological framework in which I will engage these points from a doctrinal perspective will be the texts of the Second Vatican Council.

The Place of Christ and the Church in Salvation

Among the elements Neuhaus discusses in relationship to this topic, he affirms multiple times the salvific universality of Christ and rejects any theory that would propose a separate path of salvation for Jews and Christians. 2 Indeed, this is a fundamental point and I will return to it shortly, but prior to considering the essential place of Christ in our redemption, I would like to address the soteriological implications of the revelatory dimension of the Incarnation for God’s relationship with the Jewish people.

In the Incarnation, God reveals himself fully in Jesus Christ. 3 The One who says, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9; cf. 1:18), who is the perfect self-expression of God to man is himself in the flesh a son of David (i.e., Matthew 22:41-46; cf. Psalms 89:3-4, and 2 Samuel 7:1-16). 4 As the Christological article of Gaudium et Spes (no. 22) makes clear, Christ also “fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.” 5 The perfect and definitive nature of the twofold revelation of God and of man in Jesus Christ not only results in the greatest possible affirmation of God’s Covenant with Israel for the Beloved Son of God has himself become, as man, a member of God’s beloved Chosen People 6 but the permanent and universal importance of the particularities of his humanity for that revelation highlights what Karl Rahner has dubbed the “eternal significance of the humanity of Jesus for our relationship with God.” 7

Understanding the Jewishness of Jesus, thus, not only aids us in understanding the humanity of the Savior, but also helps us to understand the specific and permanent context that God has chosen for the perfect revelation of God and man. 8 The interrelationship of these points means that the same datum of revelation that requires Christians to understand the Jewishness of Jesus (i.e., to understand God’s perfect self-revelation in the flesh) invites the Jewish people to see in Christ the embodied fulfillment of all God’s promises to them, the “living Torah of God,” 9 and the One in whom God has “pitched his tent” (ἐσκήνωσεν, Jn. 1:14b), evoking the image of God’s presence with the Israelites in the Exodus (cf. Exodus 33:7-11, 40:34-38, etc.), but with a sense of abiding presence that is infinitely more intimate and profound. 10

After considering the enduring significance the flesh of Christ for God’s relationship with the Chosen People, we can turn to the soteriological question. Neuhaus rightly acknowledges the unique mediatorship and salvific universality of Jesus Christ. He is the eschatological Messiah, and the One whose high priestly offering of himself brings about the New Covenant, not just for Israel, but for the world accomplishing in himself the universal scope of redemption envisioned by the Hebrew prophets such as Isaiah (e.g., 2:1-4, 19:16-25, 25:6ff., 66:18–23, etc.) and Tobit (e.g., 14:5-7). 11 Indeed, these Christological and soteriological themes form the core kerygmatic conviction of the various speeches of Acts, where Peter, Stephen, and Paul unveil how God has fulfilled his Covenant with Israel in Christ, and how “salvation is found in no one else” but in him, as Peter affirms before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:12). 12

Along with the necessity of Christ, the Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium no.14 affirms the salvific necessity of the Church since Christ the sole Mediator of salvation is “present to us in His Body, which is the Church” and does not work apart from it. 13 The necessity of the Church for salvation does not mean that salvation is limited to those who are visible members of the Church. 14 It does mean, however, that all those who are saved, are saved through a grace that bears a connection to Christ’s Church. 15

Still, not all have been satisfied with this solution. For example, Jürgen Moltmann in The Coming of God (1993) posed an alternative vision that advocated a specific “salvific calling” for Israel that is “parallel to the church of the Gentiles.” 16 For Moltmann, “all Israel” would be saved (cf. Romans 11:26) when Israel beholds her glorious and long-awaited Messiah face-to-face in the parousia. This means that Israel will be saved through sight and directly by “Christ of the parousia,” and not through faith and by virtue of the Church. 17 However, this solution fails to recognize the integral and organic identification between Christ and the Church, such that the latter can be identified as Christ’s own body. 18 It is through that body we obtain a real participation in Christ’s Paschal Mystery (Romans 6:8-18; cf. Galatians 2:20), and hence, it has a permanent and integral part in our salvation (i.e., Romans 12:4-5, Ephesians 5:32, etc.).

Yet, granting the necessity of the Church raises certain questions. While it is clear how this dispensation of saving grace occurs in the ordinary sense for those who are visible members of the Church, it is less clear at first sight how those outside the Church benefit from the salvation that comes from Christ and his Church. Specifically, in this space, we can inquire about Jewish people who following the dictates of their conscience have not arrived at the knowledge of

Christ as Messiah, and who continue to seek God through adherence to the Torah. How are we to understand the path of salvation for them?

God’s Fidelity and Israel’s Enduring Call

In approaching this question, Neuhaus grants a central place to the beloved status of the Jewish people in the sight of God (see Romans 11:28; cf. 9:4-5) and to God’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham, for “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (v. 29). 19 These statements are certainly true, but how to interpret their soteriological import is more difficult. Should we, for example, interpret God’s enduring election of Israel as indicative of a special dispensation of mercy that would encompass all Jewish people?

Karl Barth poses an interpretation along these lines in Church Dogmatics, where he argues in favor of the collective salvation of the Jewish people in light of this verse. 20 His exegesis hinges on a Reformed understanding of covenant, election, and divine mercy vis-à-vis human agency, and an eschatological reading of the salvation of “all Israel” in verse 26. However, Barth’s reading of Romans 11 is difficult to harmonize with the Old Testament, which correlates promise with command (i.e., Leviticus 18:5), and thereby places concrete individual and communal conditions on sharing God’s life, such as fidelity to Torah and observance of the mitzvot. 21 Such a reading of Romans 11 also is difficult to harmonize with Paul, for whom all the constitutive elements of right relation with God are now to be found only in Christ, and for whom reconciliation with God for Jew and Gentile alike occurs only by entering his Paschal Mystery. 22

Perhaps, instead, the election of Israel that Paul refers to in Romans 11:29 should be understood as a “calling” (κλῆσις) to participate in the salvation that has been effected in Christ: a salvation that the Gentiles now are receiving, but which in the fullness of time the Jews are called to receive as well. 23 Joseph Fitzmeyer proposes such a reading of the chapter, arguing that the call originally given to Abraham now “must also include God’s summons of Israel by the gospel.” 24

N.T. Wright similarly has offered a convincing argument in favor of this reading in his landmark work, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (2013), where he contends that Romans 11 must be read in light of Paul’s argument in chapter 10 that salvation comes from Christ Jesus a salvation that all are called to participate in by faith in him. 25 When read in this light, Romans 11 speaks not of a special mode of salvation for the Jewish people apart from faith in Christ for, as Paul says in Romans 10:12, “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him” but the chapter emerges as an exhortation to Gentile Christians to understand that despite Israel’s current unbelief, God does not abandon his people but continues to call them to salvation: now present in fullness in Christ Jesus. 26

Indeed, Israel has a place in God’s plan, and as Douglas Moo has noted on this chapter that place is in Christ; for Paul, “there is only one tree, and one becomes attached to this tree by faith” that is “inextricably tied to Jesus and his resurrection victory (10:9), and it is this faith that brings salvation to Gentile and Jew alike (10:10–13).” 27 In the meantime, in his providence and mercy, God uses the present moment in salvation history to include the Gentiles in that fullness promised to Israel, and which Israel will one day obtain “the one community made up of those who believe in Jesus Christ.” 28 However, this eschatological hope does not resolve the soteriological status of Jews before the Parousia. From the Christian perspective, then, the question becomes, how do the Jewish people at present relate to the fullness of God’s fidelity in Christ?

Israel’s Fidelity: Observance of Torah and the Means of Salvation

One way to approach this question would be to begin with the blueprint given by the Law and the Prophets. Neuhaus states that “Jews who seek to live Torah are ‘not far from the Kingdom of God’ (Mk. 12:34).” Certainly, observance of the Torah does bring one close to the Kingdom, but further nuance may be needed to understand the full soteriological meaning of this affirmation. Just two chapters before this verse, in Mark 10:17ff., a rich man asks Jesus about what he must do to enter the Kingdom. After having established that the man had indeed obeyed the commandments since his youth, Jesus tells the man to “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor…Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). When the man, who is blameless in terms of the commandments, departs from Jesus on account of his “great wealth,” Jesus teaches his disciples “how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” (vv. 21-22). 29 While this dialogue occurs in the context of an individual encounter between Jesus and that man, the universal teachings Jesus gives in light of it should move us to understand that, for Jesus in Mark’s gospel, adherence to the commandments may bring one close to the Kingdom, but more is required to enter in. 30 Moreover, it is not by following the Law itself that one is saved. We find this not only as a theme in Paul’s writings, but also in the Mishnah Sanhedrin, where it lists certain types of people who have fulfilled mitzvot but “who have no share in the World-to-Come.” 31 We find a similar theme in an aggadah of Abba ben Joseph bar Hama (‘Rava’) of the Shabbat tractate of the Talmud, where the Babylonian rabbi envisions what will occur in judgment:

After departing from this world, when a person is brought to judgment for the life he lived in this world, they say to him…Did you conduct business faithfully? Did you designate times for Torah study?...Did you await salvation? Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom…? And, nevertheless, beyond all these, if the fear of the Lord is his treasure, yes, he is worthy, and if not, no…[For] Torah and mitzvot without the fear of God are of no value. 32

Hence, according to Rava, “the fear of the Lord” must be the motivation and context in which one undertakes Torah observance in order to be saved. If fidelity to the Covenant entails adherence to the Law along with a salutary “fear of the Lord,” then perhaps Rava’s set of criteria is well-attuned to keeping alive the hope for the Messiah, training in righteousness, and preparation for encountering and recognizing Christ, the “shoot…from the stump of Jesse” upon whom rests the “spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:1-3). While this recognition occurs instantly for some such as the Apostle Andrew in John 1:41 and faithful Simeon in Luke 2:30 the ultimate horizon for a wider recognition of this by Israel as a whole may be eschatological, where finally the Jewish hope for the Messiah will converge with the Christian expectation of Christ’s return in glory. 33 But it is already an eschatology reconfigured around the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Christ.

The Paschal Mystery, the Holy Spirit, and the Means of Salvation

As we enter more deeply into the question, both from the Catholic dogmatic side and from the Jewish self-understanding (as we see in Rava’s aggadah), we move into a more nuanced consideration of salvation that cannot be conducted in purely categorical and collective terms, but must be assessed in light of the intricate interplay of divine and human freedom. Recognizing this, the Church’s teaching on the dynamics of salvation always retains an absolute final regard for the individual level, where the question of salvation is ultimately “worked out” (cf. Philippians 2:1213). 34

Lumen Gentium no. 14, foreshadowing Dignitatis Humanae’s appreciation for the realm of individual conscience, 35 affirms the necessity of baptism for the salvation of those whose conscience tells them “that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ.” 36 For Lumen Gentium, this is connected with the necessity of the Church, discussed above. Those who recognize Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, profess faith in him, and receive Baptism follow the ordinary path of salvation. 37 This formulation fully respects the fact that this awareness is not present to all individuals. 38

Accordingly, two paragraphs later, Lumen Gentium no. 16 says, “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience those too may attain eternal salvation” (LG , no. 16). This affirms the presence of grace beyond the visible boundaries of the Church, even in those who do not manifest explicit faith in Christ. 39 By this, Scripture and Tradition do not affirm a plurality of paths to salvation 40; those outside the Church who do receive grace, do so by virtue of Christ and his Church, even if it is mysterious and they are unaware of it. Yet, how are those outside the visible boundaries of the Church connected to Christ and thus able to receive his salvation?

For this, we turn to Gaudium et Spes no. 22 and its clarification of how those outside the visible boundaries of the Church participate in the salvation Christ won for us: “All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.” That is, the invitation to salvation would come by virtue of the Holy Spirit offering to the individual “the possibility of being associated with [Christ’s] Paschal Mystery.” 41 While this occurs “in a manner known only to God,” we are given to know that it involves an association with the Church, which “modo Deo cognito” mediates a connection to the Passion of Christ, by which we are saved (i.e., Romans 4:25). 42 While this does not formally make one a member of the Church, 43 it can lead to a real association with the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53-54), by whose wounds we are healed (1 Peter 2:24; cf. Isaiah 53:5), and union with the Church, which is identified with Christ’s sufferings on earth (i.e., Colossians 1:24, Acts 9:4, etc.).

While this may seem to be the most difficult point for a non-believer to attain, the examples of conversions old and new affirm the logic of Gaudiem et Spes 22 at work. This is visible in the stories of such converts as the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40, who came to faith through Philip’s explanation of Isaiah 53:7-8. It also is visible in the modern convert, Eugenio Zolli, former chief Rabbi of Rome, who first wondered as a youth whether the crucified Christ might be the “the ‘Servant of God’ whose canticles we read at school.” 44 This can amount to implicit faith, which where it is present is possible by virtue of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and which suggests already a connection to the mystery of Christ. 45 Where it progresses from implicit to explicit faith, as we see in the Ethiopian in Acts 8, one would seek baptism. Where, however, it remains as an implicit faith, the Holy Office wrote in 1949, “God accepts also an implicit desire, so called because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.” 46