All David Novak Quotes
- It seems unavoidable that history will always link the reestablishment of the State of Israel with the tragedy of the Holocaust. History
- In historical messianism, the reign of the Messiah is brought about by a Jewish ruler powerful enough to gather the Jewish exiles back to the… Brought
- 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… Alternatives
- All the questions discussed in the Talmud and related rabbinic literature are normative questions: either they are questions of what one is to think or… Act
- At the political level, most Jews and most Catholics have accepted the liberal idea of religious freedom. Accepted
- 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. Accept
- Because Judaism and Christianity are both covenantal religions, the relationship of the individual Jew or Christian to God is always within covenanted community. Always Within
- The community in which one hears the voice of God structures how one hears that voice and interprets what it says. Community
- The most important part of the process of mourning is regularly reciting kaddish in a synagogue. Kaddish is a doxology, which Jewish tradition has mandated… Anniversary
- I first came to Jewish-Catholic relations in 1963, while studying for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Came
- Religious traditions are in a constant state of development and renewed self-understanding. Constant
- The right to privacy has both positive and negative connotations for those who consider themselves part of the natural law tradition. Both
- 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… Autonomous
- To view any individual as being independent of relationality is like viewing a point outside of a line, a line outside of a figure, a… Any
- Foundational autonomy asserts instead that in the most fundamental practical sense, I am my own creator, which means that at the core, I am alone. Alone
- Modernity has been largely shaped for Jews by three momentous experiences: the acquisition of citizenship by individual Jews in secular nation-states, the destruction of one-third… Acquisition
- During the Middle Ages, Jews were members of a semi-independent polity within a larger polity. Ages
- For those who have envisioned the State of Israel to be a democracy, which although primarily a Jewish polity for Jews is one in which… Become Citizens
- It has always been inevitable that, living as a small minority among a Christian majority, some Jews would convert to Christianity. Among
- Unlike the issue of messiahhood, which arose when Jews and Christians were members of the same religio-political community and spoke the same conceptual language, the… Arose
- The relation between Judaism, Zionism, and Messianism is one that is often hard for Jews to get straight. Needless to say, it is even harder… Even Harder
- The religious doctrine of traditional Judaism entails the acceptance of the nationhood of the Jewish people and the everlasting sanctity of the Land of Israel… Acceptance
- Roots can live without branches, although truncated; branches cannot live without roots. Branches
- The work of man is to respond to the Covenant by obeying the commandments of the Torah, those commandments that can be obeyed here and… Commandments
- It was in the early 1960s that my late revered teacher, Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel, became the first major Jewish theologian in America to enter… Abraham