However, many years later I was baptized Catholic, seeing Jesus as a Jew who reflected a Jewish ethical and spiritual sense that, for whatever reasons, was transmitted to many non-Jewish peoples in the form of a somewhat different faith. It was easier,ultimately, for me to become Catholic than Jewish because I happened to know many Catholics who I admired but unfortunately knew few to no Jews personally.

I’m sure I was far,far too naive, but, though as a Catholic I’m surrounded by many,many wonderful, sincere and open-hearted Christians and have been involved in various interfaith efforts and activities, I’m still surprised and discomfitted, 15 years after my baptism, by the frequent, many times off-hand references to Jews, in the Gospels,in homilies, and in personal comments, as the ones who just didn’t/don’t “get it”, spiritually, a viewpoint which I think is completely incorrect.

Judaism often seems to assume,in Christian thought, the role of the “old clunker” flumping along in the slow lane on the freeway, destined to be passed up by the shiny new luxury sedan of Christianity. This is silly and it’s pretty close to becoming a deal-breaker for me, at this point.

I recently read Rosemary Radford Ruether’s book, “Faith and Fratricide”, which deals with the history of the Jewish-Christian split; a horribly tragic history. Christianity has yet to come to terms with its own sins in this regard.

This is painful.

Being from Jewish descent (“Polack” was a family name), but raised Catholic, I always try to see Judaism in Christianity. I’ve lead Jewish and Catholic services, but I really fall in between, so I need to search and search. This much I do know: Christianity is the small child of a great Father and his People. In my search, I held Küng in esteem. But after reading this, no more esteem for Mr. Küng from me. Christianity “saving” Judaism is a gotspe and, indeed, a malicious one.

I cannot speak of Mr. Homolka but I tend to believe what Katja Vehlow wrote: It is all so stuck in the thirties-to-fifties. Here in the Netherlands we have similar problem with Protestant theologians, calling new what is in fact more than a generation old. So, they’re Johhny-come-latelies, I can live with that.
But Mr. Küng’s RC arrogance is of a different class. “(L)eading Jews out of their medieval ghetto … and into modern culture : That’s precisely the argument leveled against Islam these days. To me at least it has all the echoes of the thirties and its gruesome ending, HaShoa. I never forget, I remember; a burden, but a need. My family lives because, as our father said, “The ‘Ahnenamt’ did make mistakes.”

Adam Kirsch, thank you very much for this review. Thanks to you, I can forget about Küng. You have lightened my burden. I can quietly forget about Küng and concentrate on what the Covenenant entails.

Thank you.