Rhenish synodal resolution "To renew the relationship between Christians and Jews"

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
EKIR Logo.svg

The Rhenish synodal resolution “To renew the relationship between Christians and Jews” was passed on January 11, 1980. In it, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland made statements about the State of Israel and the mission to the Jews that go beyond the statements of the EKD and other Christian churches in Germany.

Origin of the document

After the publication of the EKD study Christians and Jews in 1975, the Rheinische Landessynod commissioned the church leadership to set up a committee that would draw up an opinion on the practical consequences of the EKD study and in which Jewish members should also be represented. This committee was constituted on November 15, 1976 in Düsseldorf. Of the 22 members, four were Jews, including Yehuda Aschkenasy and Edna Brocke . The Jewish participants were expected to reject the mission to the Jews in order to create a basis for talks. Heinz Kremers drafted a text that was approved by the committee on February 13, 1978; the passage in question was then also included in the Rhenish Synodal Resolution 1980. Bertold Klappert played a decisive role in the development of the proponendum.

Decision making

In the plenary session of the regional synod in Bad Neuenahr on January 11, 1980, the debate on the proponendum on the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews took place. It was adopted with 241 votes in favor, three against and six abstentions.

content

Foundation

The synodal resolution is preceded by the biblical motto Röm 11,18b  LUT .

Four reasons prompt the church to redefine its relationship to Judaism:

  1. The recognition of Christian co-responsibility and guilt for the Holocaust .
  2. A changed understanding of the Bible through the experiences of the church struggle .
  3. "The insight that the continued existence of the Jewish people, their return to the Promised Land and also the establishment of the State of Israel are signs of God's faithfulness to his people."
  4. The readiness of Jews for dialogue despite the Holocaust.

The regional synod receives the EKD study Christians and Jews and the theses based on it on the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews , which the "Christians and Jews" committee of the Rhenish regional church developed.

Confession clauses

A number of beliefs follow from this:

  1. Confession to the joint responsibility and guilt of Christianity in Germany for the Holocaust.
  2. Confession to the Old Testament as the common basis of faith of Jews and Christians.
  3. Confession to Jesus , the Jew, Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.
  4. Belief in the permanent election of the Jewish people; through Christ the church is "accepted into the covenant of God with his people."
  5. The Church, together with the Jews, believes that justice and love characterize God's actions in history and are God's instructions for personal conduct.
  6. "We believe that Jews and Christians are ever called witnesses of God before the world and before one another." From this follows the rejection of the mission to the Jews.
  7. The “new” covenant should no longer be understood as a devaluation of the “old” covenant, the “new” people of God should not take the place of the “old”.
  8. “By repenting, we begin to discover what Christians and Jews jointly confess” - to perceive the world as God's creation and to live as blessed people in the everyday life of the world, in the hope of a new heaven and a new earth for justice and peace to enter the world.

The synodal resolution closes with a number of practical consequences, for example the support of Nes Ammim and the anchoring of the topic of Christians and Jews in teaching and research.

Theological accents

President Nikolaus Schneider at a rally against anti-Semitism (2014)
Barth's Church Dogmatics . Barth named the history of the Jews as “signs and witnesses” for “that general world affairs are actually ruled by ... he who ... is called 'God'” (KD III / 3 p. 231; 238; 225).

Holocaust as a turning point

The Rhenish Synodal Resolution makes two prominent references to the Holocaust and names Christian co-responsibility and guilt for it. This was a particular concern of Eberhard Bethge after a long stay in the USA, during which he met Holocaust survivors. His concern was that Christian theology could no longer be the same after Auschwitz, although Auschwitz, a word from Hitler's linguistic world, should be replaced by Elie Wiesel's term Holocaust.

State of Israel "a sign of God's faithfulness to his people"

The Rhenish Synodal Resolution contains the first theological qualification of the State of Israel by an official church body in Germany. Critics said that a certain historical-political current event is theologically exaggerated and thus withdrawn from rational consideration - which has a bad tradition in Germany in particular.

Particularly controversial was the formulation of the synodal resolution that the establishment of the state of Israel was a "sign of God's loyalty to his people." It builds on Karl Barth's theology and uses his category of the "sign" to describe the historical and political phenomenon of the establishment of the state Israel. It is not claimed that religious revelations can be gleaned from the course of world history, but rather the biblical tradition is used by Christians to interpret world history. The synodal resolution makes no statement as to whether the state of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical promises. According to Nikolaus Schneider , this is a question that Jews must answer for themselves.

In 2005, the Rheinische Landeskirche officially specified that “a sign only gains its expressiveness in the context in which it appears. The following theological statements of the declaration form the context. "(Volker Haarmann explained that if a patient interprets his recovery as a" sign of God's faithfulness ", this is appropriate in the context of his life story and in the context of the language of prayer (as doxology ) and does not mean that the lack of healing in another patient is a "sign of God's unfaithfulness".)

Jews and Christians "Witnesses of God to the world and to one another"

The Rhenish synodal resolution rejects the mission to the Jews. Heinz Kremers referred to impulses from Hans-Joachim Kraus to explain this passage in the synodal resolution . In terms of content, Christians are not witnesses to Jews with the message of Christ, but with a holistic life testimony: "Your no to our Messiah Jesus does not prevent the fact that you are our older brothers and sisters in faith with your faith and with your Torah piety. We ask you: accept us as your younger brothers and sisters in the faith - and let us learn from you. "

Erich Gräßer criticized that the Rhenish regional church is in contradiction to its own church order, which programmatically formulates that the church has the task of “preaching the gospel to all the world.” In the synodal resolution it is presented as if Jews and Christians had the from God received the same mandate from the world; but to be witnesses of the risen Christ, as it is the focus for Christians, is impossible for Jews per se.

reception

Bonn "Considerations"

On the part of academic theology, the Rhenish Synodal Resolution was opposed, namely in the considerations on the church's handout for the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews (epd-Documentation 42 (1980), pp. 14-17). This document was signed by thirteen professors from the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Bonn : Heiner Faulenbach (Church History), JF Gerhard Goeters (Church History), Erich Gräßer (New Testament), Antonius HJ Gunneweg (Old Testament), Hans-Jürgen Hermisson (Old Testament), Martin Honecker (systematics), Heinrich Karpp (church history), Gerhard Krause (practical theology), Otto Plöger (Old Testament), Hans-Joachim Rothert (systematics), Knut Schäferdiek (church history), Wilhelm Schneemelcher (church history) and Wolfgang Schrage (New Testament). Later, eleven theologians from the University of Münster also signed up to the considerations : Barbara Aland , Kurt Aland , Franz Hesse , Ulrich Kellermann , Franz-Heinrich Kettler , Helmuth Kittel , Günter Klein , Willi Marxsen , Friedemann Merkel , Robert Stupperich and Heinz- Dietrich Wendland .

Changes to the church order

The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland has twice changed its church order in accordance with the synodal resolution:

  • In 1987 the reference to the necessary conversation between Christians and Jews was inserted in three places;
  • In 1996 the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland added a final sentence to Basic Article I: It “testifies to the fidelity of God, who holds fast to the election of his people Israel. With Israel she hopes for a new heaven and a new earth. "

Reception within the EKD

The Evangelical Church in Germany has not made his own, says Gerhard Gronauer the method adopted in the Rheinische Landeskirche way, but with the two EKD studies of 1991 and 2000 held the secular nature of the State of Israel.

In 2012, the EKD published an orientation guide that takes the phrase “Signs of God's faithfulness to his people” from the Rhenish Synodal Resolution: the founding of the state of Israel can be interpreted as meaning that it is a means “to under the conditions of unredeemed world and in view of the real conflicts in the Middle East to enable Jews to live in the Land of Israel in law and peace. "

Web links

literature

  • Synod of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland: Synodal resolution “On the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews” of January 11, 1980. In: Rolf Rendtorff , Hans Hermann Henrix (ed.): The churches and Judaism. Documents from 1945–1985. 2nd Edition. Chr. Kaiser, Munich 1989. ISBN 3-459-01712-0 . Pp. 593-596.
  • Evangelical Church in the Rhineland: To renew the relationship between Christians and Jews. Appreciation of the resolution and the theses of the regional synod of 1980 after 25 years , Düsseldorf 2005 ( online )
  • EKD / ​​UEK / VELKD: Promised Land? Land and State of Israel under discussion. Gütersloher Verlag, Gütersloh 2012, ISBN 978-3-579-05966-2 . ( online )
  • Bertold Klappert , Helmut Starck: Reversal and Renewal. Explanations of the Synodal Resolution of the Rhineland Regional Synod 1980 "On the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews" . Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1980.
  • Heinz Kremers: Jews and Christians are witnesses of God and of one another. In: Thomas Kremers et al. (Ed.): Heinz Kremers - Learning from Judaism. Impulses for a Christology in the Jewish Context. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2015. ISBN 978-3-7887-2938-7 . Pp. 115-123.
  • Siegfried Kreuzer , Frank Ueberschaer (Hrsg.): Common Bible - Common Mission. 25 years of the Rhenish synodal resolution to renew the relationship between Christians and Jews (= publications of the Church University of Wuppertal , new series. Volume 9) Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2006, ISBN 9783788721886 .
  • Andreas Pangritz: Eberhard Bethge's contribution to the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews. In: Evangelische Theologie , 70th vol., 2010, issue 5, pp. 342–358. ( online )
  • Volker Haarmann: Double solidarity - the path of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland in view of the conflict in Israel and Palestine. In: House of Church Services of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Hanover (ed.): "... until Zion's justice rises like a shine" (Isaiah 62: 6-12). A working aid for Israel Sunday 2018. Hermannsburg 2018. pp. 42–44. ( online )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Pangritz: Eberhard Bethge's contribution to the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews . S. 346 .
  2. ↑ Andreas Pangritz: Eberhard Bethge's contribution to the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews . S. 348 .
  3. ↑ Andreas Pangritz: Eberhard Bethge's contribution to the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews . S. 348 .
  4. ↑ Klaus Wengst: What does the State of Israel concern to Christians? 2008, accessed October 25, 2018 .
  5. ^ Tobias Kriener: Christian-Jewish dialogue and German-Israeli relations. In: reformed-info. Retrieved October 25, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c Nikolaus Schneider: A difficult relationship? The Evangelical Church and the State of Israel. In: EKD. January 17, 2012, accessed October 25, 2018 .
  7. ^ Evangelical Church in the Rhineland: On the renewal of the relationship between Christians and Jews. Appreciation of the resolution and the theses of the regional synod of 1980 after 25 years . S. 2 .
  8. ↑ Volker Haarmann: Double Solidarity - The way of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland in view of the conflict in Israel and Palestine. S. 42 .
  9. ↑ a b Heinz Kremers: Jews and Christians are witnesses of God and of one another . S. 117 .
  10. ↑ Erich Gräßer: The old covenant in the new: exegetical studies on the Israel question in the New Testament . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1985, p. 225 .
  11. ↑ a b Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism. Perceptions in church and journalism from 1948 to 1972 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, p. 368 .
  12. ↑ EKD, UEK, VELKD (ed.): Gelobtes Land? Land and State of Israel under discussion . S. 107-108 .