Between Studying the Bible and Coping with the Past : Jewish-Christian Dialogue in the Post-council Period in Germany and Austria

Abstract

The decades following the tragedy of the Shoah marked a crucial turning point in how Christian theology would define its approach not only to Judaism but also to the first part of Scripture – the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. Gradually, Christian churches had to confront their own centuries-old, anti-Jewish tradition and slowly came to the realization that Christianity’s anti-Judaism and the Church’s wide-spread silence in the face of the atrocities of World War II had contributed to the heinous crimes committed by the Nazi regime. Grassroot initiatives for a Jewish-Christian Dialogue are one significant result of that shift in mindset. This paper concentrates on Jewish-Christian Dialogue initiatives based on the Hebrew Bible, which were established in the years and decades after the Second Vatican Council in post-Nazi Germany as well as in post-Nazi Austria.

Keywords

• jewish-christian dialogue
• grassroot initiatives
• post-council period
• germany
• austria