Vatican Ⅱnd The Catholic-Jewish Dialogue After Vatican Ⅱ

After thousands of years’ conflicting with each other constantly, Judaism and Catholic Church finally got peace after 1965 Vatican Ⅱ. Vatican Ⅱ, which lasted from 1962 to 1965, had published a series of documents, one of which was Nostra Aetate, a harmonious symbol between Judaism and Catholic Church. Nostra Aetate no.4 plays a key role in the Catholic Church in handling the relationship with Judaism in the new era, which breaks the silence and separation between Jewish synagogue and Catholic Church and starts a new era for reciprocal relationship.Nostra Aetate no.4 abandons the Supersessionism, the core of old Christian theology, promotes the development and reformation of Christian theology; values the root of Christian faith again, pays attention to the Jewishness of Jesus and church; Calls for mutual respect, interreligious dialogue and the cooperation in sacred and profane areas; withdraws the charge of ’Deicide’ to Jewish people among thousands of years and clears the name of them. It is obvious that this document enables the relation between Christians and Jews to become more and more harmonious. But there still exists so many difficulties because of lacking of experience. However, there is no doubt that Vatican Ⅱ and Nostra Aetate no.4 do mean a lot in the following interacting. This thesis tries to introduce Vatican Ⅱ and the function of Nostra Aetate no.4 in Chapter One. In Chapter Two, five important theological issues in the document will be discussed, including acknowledgement the validity of Jewish Covenant, valuing the Jewishness of Jesus and church again, calling for mutual respect, interreligious dialogue, and withdrawing the charge of’Deicide’ to Jewish people, and the Church’s mission of preaching the Gospel. In Chapter Three we will focus on the development and evolution of the five issues mentioned above after Vatican Ⅱ, and the reaction and reflection on them, including rethinking the concept of Covenant, and the different models of Covenant; rethinking the expression of Church’s Jewishness; the dilemma of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, and the level of nowadays dialogue; reflection and evolution on Anti-Semitism; whether or not Catholic Church should missionize to Jews, and the 2008 Good Friday Prayer Affair. In Chapter Four, some other issues relating to Vatican Ⅱ will be presented, which include the attitude towards the State of Israel, and reflection on Shoah, differentiating the Anti-Semitism and the Anti-Jewish feeling will also be concerned in this chapter. In Chapter Five, Jewish response to those issues and the reasons of lower degree of participation in Judaism part will be discussed. The final chapter will make a conclusion.We believe that it is a great progress for both Judaism and Catholic Church in the dialogue to begin to respect the religion faith of each other, respect for the other as he is, and hold on to their own faith at the same time. Both Catholic Church and Judaism have begun to reform and modify their theological concept, which is really helpful to their friendly relationship, although new problems and conflicts would occur during this process. At the same time, it takes times to correct and clean off all the prejudices and misunderstanding in the society, just because they are too powerful to be cancelled right away. Only through constant work and insistence can we change the situation radically.