New book examines the relationship between Judaism and the Catholic Church

The historical relationship between Judaism and Catholicism is complex. Deep and abiding theological differences endure, and yet Jesus himself said that “salvation comes from the Jews” (Jn 4:22), and Pope Pius XI said that, “Spiritually, we are all Semites.” Looking at this long and complicated history, how can one navigate these issues? How can Catholics understand the relationship of Catholicism to Judaism?

Angela Costley and Gavin D’Costa are the editors of a new book, From Sinai to Rome: Jewish Identity in the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 2025), which explores the deep Jewish roots of the Church and how understanding that patrimony can help Catholics come to a fuller understanding of our faith. The book features chapters from many contributors, including Scott Hahn, Brant Pitre, Roy Schoeman, Lawrence Feingold, and others.

From Sinai to Rome is a rigorous study of the rich, complex relationship between Judaism and Catholicism, which refuses to shy away from historical knots in Catholic and Jewish relations. The contributors explore this relationship in the context of the Catholic tradition, and with a deep foundation in Scripture and the history of Judaism.

Dr. Costley is a graduate of Oxford, completed her PhD at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, and is a board member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics. D’Costa taught at the University of Bristol and now teaches at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, Rome.

Costley and D’Costa recently spoke with Catholic World Report about their new book, the history of the Church’s relationship with Judaism, and why it is important to understand our Jewish roots.

Catholic World Report: How did the book come about?

Angela Costley: This is a bit of a funny story. I am a Hebrew Catholic, and I attended a Zoom event where Gavin was giving a talk, and I knew from his work that Gavin had a bit of an interest in Hebrew Catholicism. I happened to spot what I considered to be a lacuna in his thinking and, like a good Jew, wrote to tell him I disagreed.

Anyway, this sparked a wonderful conversation back and forth for a little while, and we got to know each other as scholars. Then, I started to have this idea about a book concerning Hebrew Catholicism. I felt that it was very important to draw attention to the presence of Jews in the Church as members of the Body of Christ, and this idea would not go away. So, I asked Gavin, a bit cheekily, if he would write a book with me—and he graciously said yes!

We then set about thinking about whom to invite into the project, and some fantastic scholars also said “Yes.” We have people like Scott Hahn and Brant Pitre on the Scripture side, as well as Bruce Marshall, Robert Fastiggi, and Lawrence Feingold on the Tradition side, as well as Roy Schoeman, author of Salvation is from the Jews, and Frs. David Neuhaus and Antoine Levy.

CWR: The subtitle of the book is “Jewish Identity in the Catholic Church.” Is it important for Catholics to recognize the Jewish roots of the Church? If so, why?

Costley: I would answer that with a heartfelt “absolutely!” One of the biggest obstacles to both dialogue with Jews and, indeed, to Jews entering the Church is that for centuries, supersessionism has had a real grasp on Catholic theology. The Church has long been depicted as a “New Israel” that surpasses the old, and this has led to a lot of anti-Semitism, something Robert Fastiggi talks about in his chapter in From Sinai to Rome, as well as Bruce Marshall, who looks at the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas on the Law as dead and deadening.

However, as I discuss in my own chapter, this was not the view of the Church held by the first disciples, who rather saw in Jesus the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises and the Church as, simply, Israel after the coming of the Messiah. At Vatican II, we saw a positive shift in the Church’s relationship to Judaism in Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate, which returned to this idea and drew on St. Paul’s image of the olive tree in Rom. 9-11, onto which gentile branches were grafted.

So, understanding the Church’s roots in Judaism is central to the Church’s understanding of herself. If we are truly to unpack the implications of Vatican II for theology and dialogue, we really need to appreciate the Church as blossoming from Israel rather than suppressing and supplanting it. This will lead to a greater respect for Jews and Judaism outside the Church and also to a much deeper understanding of the Church’s continuity with Ancient Israel, which will help to enrich Catholic theology, too, as we start to rejoin the dots between the Old and New Testaments.

CWR: In the earliest days of the Church, we see the apostles grappling with the question of how to understand and apply the Church’s Jewish roots going forward. Is this an ongoing project, in some sense?

Costley: Again, I would answer, “absolutely!”—this time with a bit of a sad sigh, though. As a Hebrew Catholic, one of the things I often get told is that I should forget my Jewishness, that it does not matter after the coming of Christ. However, that makes very little sense to me as a Jew because if you are claiming that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, then why, in coming to faith in him, should Jews suddenly stop being Jews?

This actually puts off a lot of Jews from taking the leap into the Church who are otherwise considering becoming Catholic, not least because under this view, it means the destruction of our people as a people. Also, our relationship with God is different. For gentiles coming to faith in Christ, their first encounter with the God of Israel is through Jesus, but we have a whole history that precedes this, and gentiles therefore presume things about Jews in the Church on the basis of their spirituality without considering ours.

For instance, at Passover, it is not just that this festival pointed to Jesus; it was a real and powerful act in the nation’s history, and so we also feel a need to celebrate it on its own terms, not just in relation to Jesus, though that is important. Our spirituality is deeply rooted in Scripture. In Scripture, especially in Acts, what we see, in fact, is not Jews suddenly becoming gentiles because they believe in Jesus.

One of the things I discuss in my chapter in From Sinai to Rome is how, at the Council of Jerusalem, the restrictions on consuming blood, not eating strangled meat etc. were not just to “keep the peace” for table fellowship, but were actually requirements of gentiles living with Jews according to the Holiness Code in Leviticus. The gentiles were not expected to become Jews, but neither were Jews suddenly gentiles. At the moment, we have a number of Jews coming to faith in Christ, which has even prompted a response from the Vatican as Gavin talks about in his chapter in From Sinai to Rome, and as a Church, we need to realise that they view their faith in Christ not as entering into some kind of new religion, but as a deepening of the relationship they already have with God.

CWR: There is a cliché that the Catholic Church was complicit in (or even an explicit perpetrator of) anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence throughout the centuries. What is the truth in this matter? Is that cliché true?

Costley: I think this is a very complicated question.

Part of the issue stems from the fact that the earliest references to what we would consider anti-Semitism today come in the Church Fathers and other early Christian writers, but, somewhat ironically, because they wanted to prove to Jews that their Messiah had come. Justin Martyr is well known for his Dialogue with Trypho, for instance. Unfortunately, this was undeniably mixed up in claims of deicide.

Melito of Sardis, for instance, in On Pascha, commented that God had been murdered and the king of Israel was hanged on a tree by Israelite hand. However, I think their aim was partly that the harsh rhetoric would in some ways convince Jews of their error, and so I question whether they would have considered themselves anti-Jewish or even, in some cases, have had that intention.

Over the subsequent centuries, though, the rejection of Christ by “the Jews” was seen by many as a great sin, and the subjugation of Jews was often seen as punishment by Christian communities, as Robert Fastiggi notes in his chapter. However, there have been positive moves by some bishops and even popes to quell anti-Semitic fervour in the Church as well, even whilst all this was going on, which he also discusses in some detail.

I would certainly add that Christianity more broadly is sometimes blamed, including in Jewish circles, for Hitler’s crimes, especially since one of the things the Third Reich did in their “church” was to remove traces of Jewish identity from the New Testament. Some years ago, I gave a talk for the Jewish Society at Durham University on Catholic reactions to the Holocaust (we prefer “Shoah”) and I remember well the Jewish sadness expressed at what they perceived to be a lack of response on the part of the pope during that period, even though great efforts were made by various convents, etc. to hide children.

We do not shy away from this topic in the book because it is an important one, but it is also a complicated one, and I believe that were it not for the truth in this cliché, more Jews would possibly have come to faith in Christ.

CWR: How about Thomas Aquinas, and the accusations of anti-semitism against him? What do you make of that?

Gavin D’Costa: First, one must distinguish between anti-semitism and anti-Judaism, although of course the two are related. I use the terms to denote two different types of prejudice. Anti-semitism denotes a person who is anti ‘Semites’, which technically denotes both Jews and Arabs who speak Semitic languages. In this forum, it means anti-Jewish, in terms of ethnicity. Anti-Judaism would relate to both ethnicity, but also add a new element: the religion of the person, Judaism. Now, a gentile who converts to Judaism is not ethnically a Semite, but is religiously Jewish.

Back to Aquinas. Here we have one additional issue: the use of these terms varies over time, and Aquinas is a medieval writer. So, beware of anachronisms! In my view, Aquinas is neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Jewish in the contemporary, recognised sense of the term. He never advocates discrimination against living people, individually or communally, based on their being Jewish or their being Semites.

Three points should be registered. First, he believed that the Jewish law and ceremonies were given by God to his people, the Jews, so that they could worship the true and living God. This teaching provides contemporary Christians with amazing resources, as Aquinas goes so far as to call Jewish practices ‘quasi-sacramental’. Second, Aquinas mistakenly assumes that once the gospel is preached, those who reject Jesus Christ are sinful. I say mistakenly, as theologically, while what he teaches is right, it is not helpful or accurate to simply apply this to all non-Christians, or specifically to Jews.

Why? There are three problems with doing this in relation to Jews. First, Paul in Romans 9-11, actually sees the Jewish ‘no’ as part of providentially extending the Jewish covenant to the gentiles. When the time is right, by God, the Jewish people will be jealous and will come to Christ.

Second, Vatican II says in Gaudium et Spes 19 that there are reasons to believe that even those living in the heart of Christendom might not properly know the gospel. Why? Because so often Christians obscure it through their lives and practices.

Third, were Aquinas living today under the authority of the magisterium, I think he would use his first insight to develop a positive theology of Judaism. Bruce Marshall, in his great essay in our book, rightly wants to make clear that Aquinas, as Aquinas, rather than as a theologian we use and deploy to help us think through matters, did think the Jews had rejected Christ and thus were under condemnation. But this latter point should be contextualised and seen not as directly anti-Jewish, but arising from his belief that anyone who rejected Christ, rejects truth and the light, and thus salvation.

So, if we view those Christians who hold that Jesus Christ is the sole means to salvation are anti-Jewish, then this would be true of the entire Christian tradition. It would be true of the present teachings of the Catholic Church that Judaism is from God and Jews who practice their Judaism are participating in God’s grace. But it would be false, as the Church teaches now that Jews who become Catholics need not reject their Jewishness.

CWR: Is this book solely geared towards Catholics? Or can non-Catholics (whether Jewish or otherwise) get anything from the book?

D’Costa: The book is geared towards Catholics and all those interested in the mystery of Israel that is at the heart of the Christian gospel.

I think that many Christian communities have already begun to ponder this mystery and have made important inroads into the question. Also, I think there are some Jews who are very interested in how Christians make sense of the Jewish mystery, so they will find the book helpful.

However, a difficulty must be registered for our imaginary Jewish reader who is not a follower of Jesus. Most Jews think that a Jew who becomes a Christian is an apostate and loses the privileges and rights of a Jew, but they, of course, still remain a Jew–just an apostate Jew. And who likes apostates? Catholics have not been friendly to their apostates historically. However, in my view, every religious community can learn from its apostates, for many are sincere and seek the truth in their hearts and minds. The history of Catholicism owes its shining light to apostates (heretics and schismatics), for it pushes the Church to consider the truth, its expression, and its light. It should also require that we defend the truth in the light of these defections. As long as one does not burn and torture apostates, and neither community does that today, then all is well. But it is up to Jewish readers to make up their minds whether I’m being fanciful.

Other Christians share with us the Scripture, Trinitarian belief, and some share sacramentally as well. Within this context, the book is for all Christians. It asks them: Do you value and understand the Jewish mystery that constitutes our own Christian identity? Put bluntly, do you understand the Church and Christianity as a Jewish messianic movement that grafts into the mystery of Israel, the gentiles?

Finally, those Jews who are Catholics or Christians will find the book equally exciting, as it raises the question about the nature of the Church: a church of the circumcision and a Church of the gentiles, as a 2015 Vatican document puts it. And that same document makes the claim that this distinction is vital not just quantitatively (which is virtually insignificant) but qualitatively (which it sees as central). Wow. That means all gentile and Jewish Christians should read the book. I would say that!

CWR: What do you hope people will take away from the book?

D’Costa: For Christians and Catholics: I hope it will deepen their faith; that it will open their eyes to reading the Scripture, both Old and New, and see both constitute our faith and love of God, Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the early Church. And it will help them pray more deeply and see that the patterns of Christian worship are so moulded and shaped by biblical Judaism.