The Christian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem
How G.K. Chesterton and Jacques Maritain led the Catholic Church to reject the myth of Jewish wandering and recognize the Jewish state
This is a fascinating and informative history of Zionism, Christianity and the founding of Israel. G.K. Chesterton, the Christian scholar, has been wrongly accused, I believe, of being an anti-Semite. My intention here in posting is not to engage in theological disputes, but to provide background history for all of us – Christians and Jews.
Despite its harsh tone, this well-known statement by the Vatican secretary of state did not indicate implacable hostility toward Jews. In fact, Cardinal Merry del Val’s declaration that the church has always protected the Jews had a degree of historical validity that was given credence by his actions a few years after his meeting with Herzl. With the revival of European blood libels at the beginning of the 20th century, Cardinal Merry del Val labeled the libels “an incredible myth.” He reminded Catholics that between the 13th and 18th centuries the popes had rejected again and again the veracity of claims that Jews killed Christian children and used their blood in religious rituals.
and,
Concerning Zionism, there is a significant difference between Protestant and Catholic views. In contrast to the diversity of Protestant responses to Zionism, some of which were positive and some negative, the official Catholic response was clearly negative. The Protestant focus on the Bible as the sole source of authority, led to a reevaluation of the Jewish aspiration to return to the land. For the Protestant reformers, the people of Israel were historically relevant. The Vatican opposed Zionism in both its political and cultural manifestations. The prospect of a Jewish state in the Christian Holy Land was threatening to the Vatican, because Zionism, and later the State of Israel, presented the church with a challenge to established doctrines.
Theodor Herzl was the first European Jew to promote and lobby for a Zionist state for Jews in Palestine. He met with quite a bit of opposition and wasn’t strongly supported by many of his fellow Jews. He died at the young age of 44 in 1904. He is buried in Israel on the mountain named for him.
The Hashomer Volunteer Militia ,”The Watchman”, in 1907 Israel
In the 1920s, Zionist leaders recognized that some Catholic intellectuals might be sympathetic to Zionist aspirations, despite the official position of the Vatican. One dissenter from the then dominant Catholic view of Zionism was G.K. Chesterton. As historian Patrick Allitt has noted: “Among the English Catholics whose work was widely read in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nearly all were converts. … Chesterton was widely recognized in his day and since as a master of English prose, and he gave to this convert generation much of its distinctive voice and mood.” Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, Chesterton’s ideas and attitudes have influenced Americans of all religious traditions.
and furthermore,
Yet Chesterton’s The New Jerusalem, an account of his 1919 tour of Palestine, concluded with a spirited defense of Zionism. That within the very same book Chesterton made antisemitic remarks should not surprise us. Chesterton admired the “new Jew” of Palestine and hoped that British Jews would move to Palestine and transform themselves into the Middle Easterners they really were. It was the “old Jews of Europe” that he disdained.
not without this,
Although he was pessimistic about Catholic support for Zionism, Herzl remained optimistic about Anglican and Protestant support. He had been in close contact with Protestant clergymen since the preparations for the First Zionist Congress of 1897. Anglican clergyman Rev. William Hechler, who had articulated support for the restoration of the Jews as early as 1883, helped Herzl obtain an audience with the Duke of Baden and his nephew Kaiser Wilhelm. Other Protestant clergymen and laymen, including a number of Americans, were associated with the seemingly contradictory 19th-century combination of Protestant missions to the Jews and support for a Jewish home in Palestine. In the late 19th century, Christians assisting in the restoration of the Jews to their land were for the most part Protestants of the various denominations; Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians were, for the most part, hostile to Zionist aims.
and now Mauritain,
With the rise of Nazism in Germany, Maritain joined other French intellectuals in a call to distance the church from political antisemitism. In 1935, responding to the Nuremberg Laws, Oscar de Ferenzy, one of Maritain’s close colleagues argued: “I defend Israel because Jesus was the descendant of David. I defend Israel because I am a Christian; as a Christian, I have the duty to come to its aid.”
and yet,
The ideology of secular Judaism, especially as espoused by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, disturbed Maritain. As Paul Merkley has noted, Christian supporters of Israel “would have preferred, other things being equal, to find believing Jews at the helm of the new state. But this was not to be … the leading figures in the new government itself were all secularists.
however,
”This dramatic statement, and others like it, reflected Maritain’s influence. John Paul II expanded on this teaching by explicitly linking the Shoah to the need for a Jewish state. In 1980, the pope noted that Jews, having undergone “tragic experiences connected with the extermination of so many sons and daughters, were driven by the desire for security to set up the State of Israel.” In 1985, the Vatican issued “Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews to Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis on the Roman Catholic Church.” Not only did this decree withdraw the charge of “deicide” imputed to the Jews; it redefined the church’s understanding of its relationship to Judaism: “Because of the unique relations that exist between Christianity and Judaism—linking together at the very level of their identity—relations founded on the design of God of the Covenant, the Jews and Judaism should not occupy an occasional and marginal place in Catechesis: Their presence there is essential and should be organically integrated.” These were powerful words; official acts that backed them up would soon follow.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.