Le Nouveau Sionisme Catholique (Gavin D’Costa)

Gavin D’Costa, professeur de théologie catholique à l'Université de Bristol, en Grande-Bretagne:

Most people, if asked to reflect on the state of relations between Christians and Israel, will instinctively mention the ardently pro-Israel and pro-Zionist sentiments not of Catholics but of evangelical Protestants: sentiments that in several instances have helped to shape British and American politics.

And people would be right to do so. Thus, when asked in a 2013 Pew survey of American religious attitudes whether God gave Israel to the Jewish people, more white evangelical Christians (55 percent) than Jews (40 percent) answered in the affirmative. Of that same group of evangelicals, 72 percent sided exclusively with Israel on the Israel-Palestinian dispute, compared with 49 percent of the general U.S. public.

These solidly pro-Israel opinions reflect a biblically-grounded phenomenon that sports a long pedigree and that has been called, simply, Christian Zionism. In its British version, it is associated historically with such “restorationist” figures as the Earl of Shaftesbury in the early 19th century and Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the second decade of the 20th century. In 1917, this deep-seated impulse played a role in the issuance of the Balfour Declaration that, without “prejudice to the civil and religious rights” of non-Jewish communities in the land, promised British government support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” […]

If this is one face of Christian Zionism—a Protestant face—the Catholic Zionism that I am about to describe presents a different face. It, too, views the foundation of Israel in 1948 as part of the biblical promise of land to God’s chosen people, and views the ingathering of that people as a sign of God’s fidelity to His promises. But the maximalist beliefs held by some conspicuous forms of Protestant Zionism, as in their envisioning of the end times and their recruitment of Jews and “Israel” as instruments toward that vision’s fulfillment, are eschewed in the Catholic conception.

It may be asked: on what basis do I claim that the Church is in fact heading toward such a specifically Catholic form of Zionism? I claim it on the basis of evidence pointing in that direction and in repudiation of a long history of Catholic anti-Jewishness. 

I also claim that this development is of great significance and should be of deep interest not only to the state of Israel and its worldwide supporters, Jewish and Gentile alike, but to all individuals and governments attentive to trends in public opinion relating to religious and political affairs. In addition, in a Europe threatened—haunted—by the return of anti-Semitism, it is nothing short of countercultural in the most auspicious sense of that word. Despite undeniable turmoil within Catholicism itself today, the Church is still home to over a billion souls, and what it thinks and says matters. 

The gestation of this new approach begins in 1965 and gets a special push forward in 1980. Since then the process, which still awaits its full unfolding, has continued to gain traction. The evidence for it is to be found scattered in official Church documents that few read and that fewer, other than professional theologians like myself, are equipped to place in context or assess for their weightiness. But the evidence is both remarkable and unmistakable; as for the theological development to which it attests, that, in my view, is unstoppable.

Lire l'article complet @ Mosaic Magazine