Catholic Church and Judaism
The Catholic Church and Judaism have a long and complex history of cooperation and conflict, and have had a strained relationship throughout history that has improved since the twentieth century. Both claim a common heritage of tradition, going back to Abraham and insist that they are the true extension of faith described in the Old Testament, which they evoke to establish their authority and justify their status as God's convenantal partner.
Both religions have their roots in the period of Second Temple Judaism and only gradually over the next centuries separated from each other while engaging in mutual polemics and forming their identities. Though initially persecuted, Christianity was legitimised in 313 and was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380, which led to increasing restrictions on the Jews by the imperial government. Based on the teachings of Paul and Augustine of Hippo as well as Roman law, the Catholic Church opted to allow Jews to live in the now Christian Empire in their role as witnesses to the Old Testament. This role offered them some privileges and protections, such as from forced conversion, but also limited their role and rights in society as stated in Roman law. Rabbinic Judaism defined itself in the struggle against Christianity and generally viewed Christians as heretics and idolaters. The popes, starting with Gregory the Great, often served as the persons who Jews would petition for intervention and Gregory's letter Sicut Judaeis became the basis for later papal bulls of protection.
Whereas Jews lived fairly unharmed in the early Middle Ages, the situation changed gradually with the start of the crusades at the end of the eleventh century. Popes usually spoke out against anti-Jewish violence but with the increase in temporal powers of the papacy, it also started to regulate Jewish presence in society. Nevertheless, ecclesiastic protection of the Jews was not always possible and some churchmen incited violence against Jews. By the thirteenth century, Augustine's witness theology had eroded significantly so that Jews were often not deemed worthy of the protection anymore and were expelled by the rulers of some Christian kingdoms. With the start of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the focus of the Church shifted to converting the Jews.
After the Holocaust in the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s led to improvements in the relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism, following the Church's repudiation of the Jewish deicide accusation and its addressing the topic of antisemitism. In 1965, the Church issued the document "Nostra aetate" which condemned antisemitism and recognized the shared heritage of Jews and Christians. Since the 1970s, interfaith committees have met regularly to address relations between the religions, and Catholic and Jewish institutions have continued to work together on issues such as social justice, interfaith dialogue, and Holocaust education. The Catholic Church has also taken steps to address the harm caused by past persecution of Jews, such as the establishment of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the apology of the Pope John Paul II to the Jewish community.
Antiquity
Both Christianity and modern Rabbinic Judaism assert that their tradition goes back to Abraham and the Hebrew religion, using this connection to establish their authority and justify their status as God's special covenantnal partner. While traditional views hold that Christianity evolved from a Jewish sect to an independent religion very early on, modern scholars such as Alan F. Segal consider both religions as siblings and simultaneous offshoots from Second Temple Judaism that parted over many centuries. Scholars sees different points of parting ways, from the ministry of Jesus or Paul the Apostle, to the Constantinian period when the Roman imperial power allied itself with Christianity, or even later, with many scholars favouring a Jewish-Christian continuum.The first Christians were Jewish and the early spread of Christianity was aided by the wide extent of the Jewish diaspora in the Roman Empire. Although Jesus was not accepted as the messiah by Jewish leaders, worshipers of the diverging religions initially co-existed within the Jewish synagogues, reading the Jewish scriptures, singing the Psalms and joining in the various rituals of the Jewish calendar. Christians moved away from Jews in subsequent centuries, but modern Catholicism has retained much of its Hebrew literary heritage, the Old Testament. Even as pagans and gentiles increasingly began to attend Christian worship, the Jewish framework remained strong. Paul the Apostle initially took part in the Jewish persecution of the early Christian movement, but following his conversion, he became a leading exponent for the Christian movement to become a religion open to all, which could move away from strict Jewish dietary laws and the requirement of circumcision. In traditional scholarship, Paul has been seen as the founder of Christianity as an independent religion and as originator of supersessionism, the theory that the Jewish people were replaced by the Christian Church as God's chosen people. Among Pauline scholar, this view has changed since the 1960s, with a greater emphasis on Paul's Jewish affiliation and viewing his conversion as his taking up his mission to the gentiles.
Like the other Jewish groups in Second Temple Judaism, Christianity engaged in the sacred polemic tradition and also the very earliest Christian writers assumed the hostile tone with which Jewish sects addressed each other. The early Church was in an intense rivalry with rabbinic Judaism and patristic writers wrote specifically against three threats they perceived from it: its appeal to some Christians caused strong Judaising tendencies; Jewish attempts to proselytise Christians; and some Jews were associated with certain Christian heresies. Anti-Jewish literature continued to be a widespread patristic genre and was often based on the Old Testament, which was thought to foresee the replacement of the Jewish people as God's people by the gentiles. Over time, these writings were lifted out of their historica context and, specifically the charge of "collective guilt" for the Deicide and the "sons of Devil" charge were fused together with the already established and wide-spread pagan anti-Semitic tradition to become the basis for Christian anti-semitism. Nevertheless, Paul's writing in Romans 11 that Israel would be saved was interpreted that the Jews would convert to Christianity at the End of Days, signalling the dawn of a new era predicted by the prophets of the Old Testament.
On the other hand, as most Jewish writings regarding Christians date back to the Middle Ages, scholars have traditionally interpreted this as a lack of Jewish interest in Christianity in antiquity. Contemporary scholars, however, view these writings as a development of a more ancient anti-Christian tradition, which can be found, for instance, in the Talmud, and conceive rabbinical Judaism as a religion that struggled with Christianity from the outset, consequently shaping its identity. According to this view, the occasional mentions of Christianity in the Talmud serve as a core critique of Christian doctrine and represent an effort to present an alternative to the Christian narrative, which is then extended in the later Toledot Yeshu. In general, according to early Talmudic writings, Christians living in the Land of Israel were considered idolaters, in contrast to Christians living outside of it, presumably because the former were considered Jewish Christians who were supposed to know that they were violating the precept of God's unity. During the rabbinate of Gamaliel II the Birkat haMinim, the "Benediction concerning heretics", was rephrased to apply to Christians and at that time Jewish Christians were cast out of the synagogues. Soon after the Bar Kokhba revolt first anti-Christian polemic began to appear in Jewish Bible commentaries.
Late Antiquity
In the Edict of Milan in 313, Emperor Constantine I ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and gave Christians, who at times were also called Catholics, the liberty to practise their religion. Christianity soon became the preferred religion of the empire and from the 340s it began to assume some characteristics of a state religion. While Constantine began a policy of toleration towards the Christians, he reversed imperial policy that had favoured the Jews and diminished their rights. In the 380s, religious uniformity became the official policy of the empire and several laws were passed that limited the rights of heretics, pagans and also the Jews, though Judaism remained a religio licita. Influential for later Catholic doctrine was in particular the fifth-century Theodosian code, a compilation of imperial constitutions from the reign of Constantine I to Theodosius II that were issued as laws in 438. The code provided a blueprint on how Jews should be treated in a Christian society, including both restrictions as well as providing them protective basic rights. The papacy insisted on the implementation of the Theodosian Code from the fifth century onwards.File:Augustine Lateran.jpg|thumb|St Augustine of Hippo, who contributed significantly towards Catholic doctrine on the Jews, as depicted in the Lateran
The aim of Church leaders at the time was never to end Judaism but they pondered the position of Jews in a Christian society. The fact that Christianity had become the religion of the empire and many other peoples was perceived as the realisation of the prophecies about the kingdom of God and that the Church was right whereas the Jews were wrong. Around 400, St Augustine, one of the most influential and foundational figures of Catholic theology, developed an important teaching that significantly influenced the Church's position regarding the Jews. In his writing De civitate Dei, Augustine, referencing psalm 59:12, argued that because the Jews were unknowing witnesses to Christ spared by God, they must be protected. As they accepted the Old Testament, this was a disinterested testimony to the truth and historical basis of biblical Christological prophecy and as such Jews were living witnesses to the divine origin of Scripture. Next, their suffering due to the destruction of the temple and their dispersion over the world showed that God had punished them for their rejection of Christ. Augustine inteperpreted this as the testimony of the error of Judaism and the truth of Christianity. Thirdly, Jews highlighted the distinction between the old, physical Israel and the new, spiritual Israel for Christians. Finally, Jews served as a rhetorical personification of carnality and sin and thus reminded Christians that sin was part of the human condition. For Augustine, that meant that Christians should encourage the presence of Jews amongst their midst as well as the continued observance of Jewish rites; as such, he placed little emphasis on evangelising Jews.