Edinost in Dialog (Apr 2021)
Jakob Aleksič: Man’s Calling to Dialogue
Abstract
This paper presents and critically evaluates dr. Jakob Aleksič’s view of dialogue, the unity of the Scripture, and Judaism, based on the discussions published by him in the journals Zbornik teološke fakultete and Bogoslovni vestnik after the Second World War. The paper is a continuation of the article Jakob Aleksič – The Messenger of the Biblical Science Spring published in the Unity and Dialogue 74 (2019‑1). In his discussions Aleksič »faithfully follows the teachings of the Church« (Stainer 1980, 497), i.e. the Council’s and other documents of the Church. As Aleksič (1955, 144) himself asserted, his discussions do not represent an original scientific contribution but a more professional presentation, »which has only a more general introductory character«. Aleksič understands the Bible as a written record of the dialogue between God and man or as a historical sediment of this dialogue woven into the history of the elected people. In harmony with the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), he emphasizes the unity of the two covenants, the Old and the New, for the history of salvation »did not begin with the wood of the cross on Golgotha, but with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden« (1967, 6). Thus, the message of Jesus of Nazareth cannot be properly understood without »observing it in the context of the living, millennial prophetic tradition and historical reality of the Jewish people« (1965, 236b). Similarly, the question of Jews and Judaism is placed within the framework of God’s universal plan of salvation. Due to the fact that Aleksič was the first in Slovenia to report very accurately and extensively on the so called Declaration on the Jews, which in its final (fourth) form became known as the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate), he is valued as a national awakener who educated future generations of priests for dialogue. His work thus in a special way prelude the present (and previous) issue of Unity and Dialogue, which marks the 55th anniversary of the publication of the Nostra aetate.
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