SEARCH Journal

Rabbis call Israel to justice, mercy and righteousness

AN international coalition of 80 Orthodox Jewish rabbis recently issued a statement calling for Judaism’s core religious values of justice, mercy and righteousness to be observed by the Israeli government, recognising that all humanity is created in God’s image. The initiative was spearheaded by Rabbi Yosef Blau, former president of the Religious Zionists of America and longtime spiritual advisor at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, who now resides in Jerusalem. Dublin’s former Chief Rabbi, David Rosen, was a signatory.

Trauma and Solidarity amid Genocide

THE TRAUMA in Palestine is cataclysmic. Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel was unprecedented in the history of the struggle, but Israel’s retaliatory genocidal assault has gone far beyond any notion of proportionality or defense. Israel seized upon that tragic moment as both opportunity and pretext to unleash a ruthless and ideologically driven onslaught against a stateless and defenseless people. The aim is tragically clear: to ethnically cleanse Gaza, to erase its people, and claim its land for resettlement. This is not speculation; it is the fulfillment of a long-standing vision embedded within political Zionism itself.

Apocalyptic, Ricoeur and human hopefulness

ANGLICAN priest Edward Cardale’s words reflect a pervasive mood of ‘eco-pessimism’. It is pessimistic (or realistic, he might say), because it is no longer a clarion call to avert climate disaster but recognition that its consequences are already on the near horizon.

Doing justice, practising hospitality: revisiting migration policy

IN THE Christian tradition hospitality is understood as the highest form of love; rooted in Jesus’ command that we love one another as we have been loved. Love in that sense is supra-ethical; it is the ground on which ethics stands, it is not simply reduced to a set of normative practices. Love does not argue, even if it is refracted in many ways: in equal regard for our neighbour, and in setting aside self-interest for the sake of another, and in friendship. In contrast, in the domain of social practice love speaks in the language of justice. It is justice that argues, adjudicating the claims of parties with opposed interests and rights. In its distributive form, justice envisages society as a whole, not only in terms of the narrower realm of economics. And in its highest form, a just society, according to Paul Ricoeur, can be envisioned as a society of mutual dependence, even indebtedness

Far-Right Extremism - the challenge to the Churches

THE GLOBAL polarisation of social, political and religious thought is a major challenge for Christian churches today. While in the past far-right and Fascist ideologies changed the course of 20th century European history, now they are finding new expressions and a new resurgence in ur globalised and digitised world. Ireland has traditionally understood itself as avoiding any significant representation of extreme far-right ideologies. However, after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, a new form of anti-immigrant far-right extremism began to affect communities across the country in terms of two poignant issues for Christians; racism and the misappropriation of Christian language and symbols. These become the context in which we are invited to respond to the rising threat.

Whither the Archbishopric of Canterbury?

IN September 2024 I retired from teaching at Ripon College Cuddesdon, the Church of England Theological College near Oxford, after 32 years on the staff, much of it spent as vice-principal. Shortly afterwards, I received a letter from Lambeth Palace, the home and office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to say that I had been given the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship and I was invited to receive the medal from the Archbishop at a reception at the Palace on 28 November. It was all very unexpected and flattering. Yet I was not destined to see the newly refurbished Palace: things changed very rapidly.

ADDENDUM: Whither the Anglican Communion - as Bp Sarah Mullally is translated to Canterbury?

An update from Mark Chapman to his article in the autumn SEARCH (48.3). As Bishop of London, which is perhaps the most divided diocese in the Church of England, Sarah Mullally has shown deep respect and pastoral support for parishes and clergy that do not accept her sacramental ministry and has been able to work within the Five Guiding Principles that co-ordinate relationships between parishes of different theological persuasions. The initial response from the Church of England has been very positive.  As she will be 64 when she begins her ministry the appointment is something of a caretaker role - bishops in the Church of England have to retire at 70 -  and it is to be hoped that she will be able to help lessen some of the deep divisions from the later years of her predecessor. One issue that may come to haunt her is that there have been some challenging safeguarding incidents in her diocese in recent years, and some have criticised her for being too lenient with some of her senior clergy. But she has also shown an ability to listen carefully to survivors and victims and has been supportive of the need for full independence for the safeguarding processes. Internationally, she has already been criticised by GAFCON in a hostile statement because of her support for blessings for same-sex couples, even though she has continued to uphold the traditional doctrine of marriage. In a rather more respectful statement, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans expressed a similar view. Both groups felt that the office could no longer function as an Instrument of Communion. In practice her position is no different from that of her predecessor, so nothing fundamental has changed. But it will be interesting to see how having a highly competent woman Archbishop of Canterbury who has already exercised senior leadership as the chief nurse in Britain will change the dynamics between the primates. Her appointment is also a reminder that if the Anglican Communion is to survive in some form it will need to be much looser and will need different structures, perhaps along the lines of the Nairobi-Cairo proposals.

Baron Friedrich von Hügel (1852-1925) - modernist and mystic

27 JANUARY 2025 marked the centenary of the death of Baron Friedrich von Hügel, one of the most significant theological figures of the early 20th century. His title a relic of the Holy Roman Empire, the Baron – his friends and much subsequent scholarship refer to him as nothing else – pursued a wide range of academic interests, at a scholarly depth that continues to surprise his readers. At the turn of the century, he was a central figure in the Modernist crisis in Roman Catholicism; hence the noted French Protestant Franciscan scholar, Paul Sabatier, dubbed him ‘the modernist bishop.’ But the Baron’s scholarly work transcended the immediate concerns of the Modernist crisis.

Nuances of Glory

GLORY . . . The wow factor of God, or at least the wow that surrounds Him. A human attempt to describe the indescribable, the impossible beauty, the transcendent goodness, the ultimate wonder that is the impact of God. Like all descriptive language, there is here a great deal of metaphor, of analogy, an understandable wish to ascribe all that is best to God – “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength” (Psalms 29:1,2 and 96:7,8). The same process can be seen in the New Testament, where its writers plunder contemporary culture to find titles big enough for Jesus.

Book Reviews