Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate) transformed the Catholic view of the Jewish people and the Jewish religious tradition. Asserting that the Church discovers her link to the “stock of Abraham” when “searching her own mystery,” Nostra Aetate intimated that the mystery of Israel is inseparable from the mystery of the Church. As interlocking mysteries, each community requires the other in order to understand itself. In Searching Her Own Mystery, noted Messianic Jewish theologian Mark S. Kinzer argues that the Church has yet to explore adequately the implications of Nostra Aetate for Christian self-understanding. The new Catholic teaching concerning Israel should produce fresh perspectives on the entire range of Christian theology, including Christology, ecclesiology, and the theology of the sacraments. To this end, Kinzer proposes an Israel-ecclesiology rooted in Israel-Christology in which a restored ecclesia ex…

In this series of beautiful and accessible meditations, Fr. Jean-Miguel Garrigues examines death and eternal life in the light of Christian revelation. His work is the fruit of years of sustained theological reflection, as well as his own experience accompanying terminally ill cancer patients as a hospital chaplain. At the Hour of Our Death nourishes the vitally important theological virtue of hope. It encourages us to accompany the dying with compassion, love, and prayer, to live in communion with the saints of heaven and the holy souls of purgatory, and to wisely and serenely prepare ourselves for the day when we, too, will be called to accomplish, in the company of Jesus, the great Passover from this life to the house of our heavenly Father. The worldwide pandemic has brought end-of-life issues closer to many people than ever before. Fr. Jean Miguel’s insights, lucidly rendered into English by Fr. Gregory Casprini, will serve as a help and consolation to many, strengthening their…