CATHOLIC APPROACHES
TO THE LAND & STATE OF ISRAEL

The goal of this conference was to encourage Catholic theological and scholarly engagement with one of the most challenging topics yet to be addressed in the Jewish-Catholic conversation, that is, Catholic approaches to the land and state of Israel. The conference explored three main issues in order to help advance the ongoing conversation in Catholic-Jewish relations and build upon Vatican II and later teachings about the Jewish people (a) the significance of Jerusalem in Catholic thought; (b) Catholic thinking about the theological significance of the land and state of Israel; (c) the situation of local Catholic communities in Israel, Palestine and the disputed territories and how they bear upon these issues. The conference included scholarly papers, a keynote address by Professor Gavin d'Costa (University of Bristol), and both local Palestinian Christians and local Jewish Israelis as respondents. The conference took place in June 2019, in partnership with the Philos Project. The papers will be published as a collected volume, edited by Gavin d'Costa and Faydra Shapiro.