Naming the fellowship between the church and the jewish people at the second Vatican council and in our time

Abstract

Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, describes the Catholic Church as the new people of God. It affirms that Orthodox and Protestant Christians belong to this new people of God in degrees of imperfect but real communion. In contrast, Jews and others who have not yet accepted the Gospel are said to be related and ordained to ( ordinantur ad) the new people of God. And yet, implicit in Paul's Letter to the Romans and the Latin text of Nostra Aetate is the basis for an ecclesiology that affirms that the Jewish people like non-Catholic Christians do belong to the new people of God in a distinct and qualified way. This manner of naming the relation between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people contributes to a recognition of the sui generis character of this fellowship, calls upon Catholics to recognize our history of sins against the Jewish people and to initiate new forms of relationship, and can contribute to the reframing of theological dichotomies such as that of the spirit and the flesh.