I pave Benedikts bok, “Jesus fra Nasaret”, blir en nålevende forfatter sitert og diskutert mer en noen annen. I fjerde kapittel, som handler om Jesu bergpreken, bruker Ratzinger minst 15 sider på denne forfatteren, som er en ortodoks jødisk rabbiner, Jacob Neusner, han bor I USA og underviser ved Bard College, i Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. I 1993 utga han en bok som gjorde et sterkt inntrykk på daværende kardinal Josef Ratzinger: “A Rabbi Talks with Jesus.”
In “Jesus of Nazareth,” the pope explains why this book made such a positive impression on him. In it, “the author takes his place among the crowds of Jesus‘ disciples on the ‘mount’ in Galilee. He listens to Jesus […] and he speaks with Jesus himself. He is touched by the greatness and the purity of what is said, and yet at the same time he is troubled by the ultimate incompatibility that he finds at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount […] again and again he talks with him. But in the end, he decides not to follow Jesus. He remains – as he himself puts it – with the ‘eternal Israel’.”
Jacob Neusner har så nylig skrevet i The Jerusalem Post om hvordan det opplevdes å være omtalt I pavens bok:
In the Middle Ages rabbis were forced to engage with priests in disputations in the presence of kings and cardinals on which is the true religion, Judaism or Christianity. The outcome was predetermined. Christians won; they had the swords.
But in the post-WW II era, disputations gave way to the conviction that the two religions say the same thing and the differences between them are dismissed as trivial. Now a new kind of disputation has begun, in which the truth of the two religions is subject to debate. That marks a return to the old disputations, with their intense seriousness about religious truth and their willingness to ask tough questions and engage with the answers.
….. In «A Rabbi Talks with Jesus» I undertook to take seriously the claim of Jesus to fulfill the Torah and weigh that claim in the balance against the teachings of other rabbis – a colloquium of sages of the Torah. I explain in a very straightforward and unapologetic way why, if I had been in the Land of Israel in the first century and present at the Sermon on the Mount, I would not have joined the circle of Jesus’s disciples. I would have dissented, I hope courteously, I am sure with solid reason and argument and fact.
….. By that criterion I propose to set forth a Jewish dissent from some important teachings of Jesus. It is a gesture of respect for Christians and honor for their faith. For we can argue only if we take one another seriously. But we can enter into dialogue only if we honor both ourselves and the other. In my imaginary disputation I treat Jesus with respect, but I also mean to argue with him about things he says.
What’s at stake here? If I succeed in creating a vivid portrait of the dispute, Christians see the choices Jesus made and will find renewal for their faith in Jesus Christ – but also respect Judaism. I underscore the choices both Judaism and Christianity confront in the shared Scriptures. Christians will understand Christianity when they acknowledge the choices it has made, and so too Jews, Judaism. I mean to explain to Christians why I believe in Judaism, and that ought to help Christians identify the critical convictions that bring them to church every Sunday.
… When my publisher asked for suggestions of colleagues to be asked to recommend the book, I suggested Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Rabbi Sacks had long impressed me by his astute and well-crafted theological writings, the leading contemporary apologist for Judaism. I had admired Cardinal Ratzinger’s writings on the historical Jesus and had written to him to say so. He replied and we exchanged offprints and books. His willingness to confront the issues of truth, not just the politics of doctrine, struck me as courageous and constructive.
But now His Holiness has taken a step further and has answered my critique in a creative exercise of exegesis and theology. In his “Jesus of Nazareth” the Judeo-Christian disputation enters a new age. We are able to meet one another in a forthright exercise of reason and criticism. The challenges of Sinai bring us together for the renewal of a 2,000 year old tradition of religious debate in the service of God’s truth.
Someone once called me the most contentious person he had ever known. Now I have met my match. Pope Benedict XVI is another truth-seeker. We are in for interesting times.