Does dialogue with Jews threaten the integrity of Christian faith?
By no means, though problems of faith can and sometimes do arise. Differences between the two traditions run deep. For example, the Jewish insistence on the oneness of God sometimes challenges Christians to explore more fully the distinctively Christian Trinitarian teaching, namely, that God is one substance in three persons. This teaching, in all its truth about the complexity of God’s unity, begins and ends in mystery. So does the Jewish understanding of God. Exploring the inexhaustible mystery of the one God is our common calling and our common destiny. As another example, our Christian claim that Jesus is God’s Messiah will inevitably confront the several different understandings of “Messiah” held by Jews at various times in the past and even today. Christians in the dialogue have to come to grips with these differences and, more importantly, with the simple fact that people of deep faith and religious integrity embody them. That can be unsettling. It can also be inspiring to disco
