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October 6, 2012
Present: Victoria Barnett, Mary Boys, Robert Cathey, Philip Cunningham, Alice Eckardt, Eugene Fisher, Bjorn Krondorfer, Michael McGarry, John Thaddeus Martin Pawlikowski, Peter Petttit, Elena Procario-Foley, Karla Suomala, Frank Sherman
Absent: James Bernauer, Rosann Catalano, Katherina von Kellenbach, Ester Menn, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Demetrios E. Tonias
Philip Cunningham chaired the meeting at the request of Katherina von Kellenbach; it commenced at 2:03pm.
Approval of minutes from CSG April 2012 meeting approved unanimously, moved by Frank Sherman and seconded by Alice Eckhardt.
CSG Projects:
Questions were sent to: John Pawlikowski, Joe Tyson, Walter Harrelson, Eva Fleischner, Clark Williamson, Norman Beck, and John Townsend. The committee received responses from everyone but Clark Williamson whom they can’t seem to reach. Two responses were received from John Townsend; Alice Eckhardt read parts of his responses. Fleischner’s and Beck’s responses were brief.
The questions that were posed were in two categories:
1. Questions on the development of the CSG:
a. What were the initial questions of Jewish-Christian dialogue? Have any of them been resolved? Do any of these questions remain unresolved?
b. Why did the name of the CSG change? Which discussions helped shape and change the identity of the CSG?
c. What do you consider the CSG’s most significant accomplishments over the years?
d. What were its greatest obstacles and failures?
e. Which (political, scholarly, personal, institutional) strategies affected Jewish-Christian relations most profoundly over the decades?
f. What were the CSG’s gravest obstacles or failures?
2. Questions on your personal development as a member of the CSG:
a. What brought you to the topic of Jewish-Christian dialogue? What were your attitudes and expectations? How much contact did you have with Jews?
b. How has this engagement impacted your faith?
c. Which events in Jewish-Christian relations do you consider most significant?
d. How have attitudes between Jews and Christians changed?
e. Which problems remain?
Committee sent the letter with the questions along with the lengthy history of the group, list of published materials used in early years, list of papers given, list of guests – as far as the committee was able to reconstruct.
PC posed question about the video-interview possibility so that no threads were lost from previous discussions. People agreed that the video option could not be pursued at this time.
Katharina said in an email to AE that she would like to see CSG compile a reflective history to celebrate accomplishments and chart course for the future.
FS: I don’t think two-page responses are helpful. What is the status of the Merkle book?
MB says perhaps we should consider a new volume organized thematically; we could still write in the first person.
VB suggests we go in future directions of the dialogue some of which were suggested by Karla’s morning presentation.
PC says if Merkle book is going out of print and if we can get copyright we could put in on the website.
AE asks what committee should do at this point?
PC says work seems to be complete if the earliest members have been surveyed.
PC - was anyone polled who was not in the Merkle book? John Townsend
PC will pursue copyright end of it with John Merkle.
- Jillian Maxey, Ph.D. student at BC
PC: second item Jillian Maxey, student of Ruth Langer is interested in the question of how influential the relationships between Jews and Christians have been and how it affected Christian engagement with the issues and rethinking the issues. The following suggestions were offered for her assistance:
EF: A.J. Rudin’s book on the three cardinals;
JTMP: H.H. Hendrick’s book
MB: Jim Fredericks article on interreligious friendship
PC announced that Camille Markey is on maternity leave and Jillian Maxey is filling in for her and so will be at the spring meeting and might be asked to present. Decision taken for Maxey to speak with CSG in April.
Committee Reports
Peter said he, MB, JPR are committee. JPR is chair and there’s not been a meeting of the committee. PC notes that JPR had an obligation with the State Department and was excused from the meeting.
Marty Michaelson was pleased to know he was still being considered but he is not available for membership at this time due to other scholarly projects.
Reggie Williams, Bob Cathey’s colleague was interested in coming to the BC meeting.
Slots open: we think one slot is open for an evangelically-oriented member; Bob Cathey said Reggie Williams might fit that ticket. Alice says there was a list that should be reviewed. Mary Boys suggests Alan Lai in Ontario at Waterloo Seminary; wrote a dissertation on why Asians should be interested in Jewish-Christian relations. Question about whether it is 1 or 2 slots open.
A notification was issued by the membership committee that: Robert Cathey, Phil Cunningham, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Peter Pettit must indicate to the membership committee by the end of this meeting whether they will seek readmission for another term; a month after the meeting they must submit reapplication.
Confusion over membership lists and terms; the lists that PP has do not seem to be consistent with the entering class cohorts. PP says if he switches with Katharina then the cohorts will seem to be back together and it’s only a one-to-one switch.
PC notes that the membership committee vets the application and that two of the committee members are up for reevaluation. FS says the member of the committee must recuse him/herself from reevaluation and the other 2 can conduct the reevaluation.
MB will notify JPR.
PP: VB and RC are class of 2017. EP-F class of 2015.
Michael McGarry, Karla Suomala, Phil Cunningham
Spring Program
John Connelly will be our principle guest in Boston in April thanks to James Bernauer’s largess and initiative. Karla will confirm that he will be with CSG for the entire meeting and what will be the content of his presentation to CSG vs the public BC presentation.
Reggie Williams will present given the decisions at this meeting. His dissertation is on how what Bonhoeffer learned in Harlem reframed the Jewish-Christian question when he returned to Germany. Program committee tasked Bob with task of extending the invitation to his colleague Williams.
Jillian Maxey will speak with CSG for half a session
Future Program Ideas:
AE suggests Tyson’s book on Acts to be considered by the program committee
KS suggests Caitlin Carenen’s work based on her book The Fervent Embrace: Liberal Protestants, Evangelicals, and Israel
MMc suggests that if we invite her we should do it during a Boston meeting for ease of transportation even if it is 2014. VB says she could check in with her to see if she is still working in this area. MMc said he would ask her
PC says he needs to check with JB on budget.
EF suggests that program committee consider Christian Athans’ work on quest for the Jewish Mary.
MB suggests Paul Knitter for CSG perhaps next fall. He wanted to come but just couldn’t fit it in for 12-13.
BK: new Muslim colleague – Mohammed Mohammed - from Cairo very much involved in trilateral but under the radar. BK will meet with his group in NY later this month so at that point BK will have a better sense of his value for different dialogues.
PP: looked into CSG url pointer; Group voted on www.csg-cjr.org
McCormick alumni relations will be traveling with Bob Cathey and Reggie Williams to the spring meeting to set up McCormick alumni events. Can she sit in on the meeting in spring? Group says yes but not business meeting
BK asked about status of Wikipedia page for CSG. PC says someone had created a page who was not a member. JPR was already an editor on Wikipedia and went in and updated it.
PC – 50th anniversary of NA is in sight; it’s a very important moment to continue to raise awareness of the importance of the dialogue and the issues involved.