Friends on the Way: Jesuits Encounter Contemporary Judaism »

Thomas Michel, S.J., is Secretary for Interreligious Dialogue of the Society of Jesus in Rome and Ecumenical Secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.

The largest order of religious in the Roman Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus has been at the forefront of the Church's efforts at dialogue across religions.

Understanding and improving relations between the Church and the Jewish people has been a major focus of the Holy See and the Society of Jesus for many years. This book, the fruit of a major conference on the history, nature, and dynamics of relations between Jesuits and contemporary Jewish life, brings together a rich, wide-ranging selection of essays by Jesuit scholars and pastoral leaders, a leading Jewish studies scholar, and a leading rabbi.

Drawing on a variety of approaches in historical and constructive theology, literary criticism, and spirituality, the contributors explore historical, philosophical, theological, cultural, and institutional themes-from Ignatian perspectives on Halakhic spirituality and the role played in Jesuit history by Jews forced to convert to Christianity to Jesuit perspectives on Hannah Arendt, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Harold Bloom.

Preface   Thomas Michel, S.J.     vii
Introduction   Harold Kasimow     1
From Windfall to Fall: The Conversos in the Society of Jesus   Marc Rastoin, S.J.     8
Reflections on the Dialogue between Jew and Non-Jew in the Bible and in Rabbinic Literature   Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin     28
The Goal of the Ignatian Exercises and Soloveitchik's Halakhic Spirituality   Christian M. Rutishauser, S.J.     38
An Ignatian Perspective on Contemporary Jewish Spirituality   Donald Moore, S.J.     57
The Jewish Theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel as a Challenge for Catholic Theology   Stanislaw Obirek     71
The Genius and the Wisdom of Harold Bloom   Peter Du Brul, S.J.     83
From Midrash to Rashi to Contemporary Narrative Exegesis (R. Alter, M. Sternberg, et al.): Continuity in Jewish Biblical Reading   Jean-Pierre Sonnet, S.J.     111
Inscribe the New in the Old: Inner-Biblical Exegesis (M. Fishbane) and the Hermeneutics of Innovation (B. Levinson)   Jean-Pierre Sonnet, S.J.     128
A Catholic Conversation with Hannah Arendt   James Bernauer, S.J.     142
What Might Israelis and Jews Learn about Christians and Christianity at Yad Vashem?   David M. Neuhaus, S.J.     166
Contributors     179
Notes     183
Index     223