Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations   Volume 7 (2012): Langer and Spicer RES1 

Langer and Spicer, Introduction  Langer and Spicer RES 1  http://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/scjr 

 

Editors’ Introduction: Koch Symposium 
 

Ruth Langer and Kevin Spicer, CSC  
 

Editors’ Introduction to Responses to Cardinal Kurt Koch’s October 30, 2011  
Keynote Address at Seton Hall University during the 10

th
 Annual Meeting  

of the Council of Centers on Christian-Jewish Relations  
 

 
 
On October 30, 2011, the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations was privileged to 
welcome Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Rela-
tions with the Jews, to its tenth annual meeting as its keynote speaker. This lecture was 
simultaneously the 18th Annual Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture at Seton 
Hall University, the host of the meeting and Cardinal Koch’s first major discussion of Catholic-
Jewish relations since his appointment to his current position in July 2010. Such an address by a 
leading prelate of the Catholic Church becomes a point of reference with some significant       
authority in the development of Catholic teachings about Jews and Judaism and one to which 
those involved in Catholic-Jewish relations will look to inform their own teaching and writing. 
 
Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, the journal of the Council of Centers, is grateful that    
Cardinal Koch agreed to publish his address here and to open a discussion of its contents in this 
context. Our forum continues and deepens a dialogue that began in the evening after the       
Cardinal’s address with members of the Council of Centers. We publish here the responses of 
six leading participants in today’s dialogue: two Catholics, Philip A. Cunningham (St. Joseph’s 
University, Philadelphia, PA) and Peter C. Phan (Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.); two 
Protestants, Karla Suomala (Luther College, Decorah, IA) and Jesper Svartvik (Lund University, 
Sweden; Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem, Israel); and two Jews, Adam Gregerman 
(Institute for Christian-Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD) and Eugene Korn (Center for Jewish-
Christian Understanding and Cooperation, Efrat, Israel). 
 
Discussion in October was naturally limited to first impressions, as only a few had seen the   
Cardinal’s text in advance. However, Cardinal Koch’s address was and is a carefully crafted 
study of the state of the dialogue, complete with proposals for future pathways. Our six respond-
ents have read his talk carefully, parsing his language and offering helpful analyses of it. They 
have also accepted his invitation to dialogue, discussing his proposals and critiquing them. By 
publishing the Cardinal’s talk here alongside these responses, we hope that such a symposium 
will serve as an incremental step forward in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue, a dialogue we look 
forward to continuing.