The theological contacts between Jews and Christians during much of the premodern period are best characterized as disputations. Even when not engaged in face-to-face argumentation, Jews and Christians spoke about each other in essentially disputational terms. David Novak Read Quote
In deciding among theological views, one should be something of a consequentialist: the choice of one theological position over another should be, if not actually determined, at least heavily conditioned by the fact that it implies a better ethical outcome than the alternatives. David Novak Read Quote
At the political level, most Jews and most Catholics have accepted the liberal idea of religious freedom. David Novak Read Quote
One cannot accept Christ and still be part of the normative Jewish community; one cannot live by Torah and still be part of the Church. David Novak Read Quote
Because Judaism and Christianity are both covenantal religions, the relationship of the individual Jew or Christian to God is always within covenanted community. David Novak Read Quote
I first came to Jewish-Catholic relations in 1963, while studying for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. David Novak Read Quote
Each person is responsible only for his or her own sins. Even the Christian doctrine of ‘original sin’ does not mean that humans are punished for the sin of the first human pair but, rather, that humans seem inevitably to copy the sin of the first human pair. David Novak Read Quote
The Jewish tradition presents itself as the greatest revelation of God’s truth that can be known in the world. That is why we call ourselves ‘the chosen people.’ It is not that we choose ourselves. It means that we have been elected by God and given the Torah. David Novak Read Quote
The right to privacy has both positive and negative connotations for those who consider themselves part of the natural law tradition. David Novak Read Quote
Every individual is a person necessarily imbedded in a range of multiple relations, and therefore, no one is really independent in anything but a relative sense; no one is truly autonomous. David Novak Read Quote
