What Nostra Aetate Inaugurated: A Conversion to the “Providential Mystery of Otherness”

Abstract

The Second Vatican Council's declaration Nostra aetate (NA) is regarded as a “watershed” document. NA no. 4, on relations with the Jewish people, is frequently cited as evidence of a turning point in the Catholic Church's attitudes toward the religious Other. Yet the full significance of NA no. 4 becomes manifest only when it is situated in the complex history of the church's understanding of Judaism, including the contentious debates at the council and current theological disputes.