Nostra Aetate

Background and Occasion

Nostra Aetate began as a statement on the Jewish people. In June 1960 John XXIII received the French Jewish historian Jules Isaac, who had lost his wife and daughter in the Holocaust and who argued that Christian teaching of contempt for Jews had prepared the ground for modern antisemitism. John XXIII asked Cardinal Bea to prepare a text. During the Council it met political objections, especially from Arab states that feared it would be read as a statement on the State of Israel, and theological objections from some bishops. It was eventually widened into a declaration on all the non-Christian religions.

The final text was promulgated on 28 October 1965, after a vote of 2,221 to 88. It is the shortest of the sixteen conciliar documents, only five articles long, but one of the most consequential.

Central Teaching

The human search for God (NA 1)

The declaration opens with the unity of the human race. All peoples form one community, with one origin, since God made the whole human race to dwell on the earth, and one final goal, God himself, whose providence and saving designs extend to all. People look to the religions for answers to the same questions: what man is, the meaning of life, the origin of suffering, the path to happiness, death and judgement, and the final mystery that surrounds our existence.

Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions (NA 2)

The Council notes that from ancient times peoples have had some perception of a hidden power at work in things and in human life. It mentions Hinduism’s contemplation of the divine mystery and its search for liberation through asceticism, meditation and trust in God, and Buddhism’s recognition of the insufficiency of this changing world and its path to liberation. The Catholic Church, it says, rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions, which often reflect a ray of the truth that enlightens all people. At the same time the Church proclaims, and must proclaim, Christ, the way, the truth and the life, in whom people find the fullness of religious life.

Muslims (NA 3)

The Church regards Muslims with esteem. They adore the one God, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to humanity. They seek to submit to his decrees as Abraham did, revere Jesus as a prophet though not as God, honour Mary, and await the day of judgement. The Council urges Christians and Muslims to set aside the quarrels and hostilities of the past and to work together for social justice, moral values, peace and freedom.

The Jewish people (NA 4)

The fourth article is the longest and the heart of the declaration. The Church recognises that the beginnings of her faith are found in the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets; she is nourished from the root of the good olive tree onto which the Gentiles have been grafted (Romans 11:17–24). The Jews remain most dear to God for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back his gifts or his call (Romans 11:28–29).

The Council then states that what happened in Christ’s Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living without distinction, nor against the Jews of today. The Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from Scripture. The Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s love, decries hatred, persecution and displays of antisemitism directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.

Universal brotherhood (NA 5)

The declaration ends by teaching that we cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat any person as a brother or sister, since all are created in God’s image. The Church therefore rejects any discrimination or harassment because of race, colour, condition of life or religion.

Theological Significance

Nostra Aetate transformed the Church’s relations with other religions, above all with Judaism. It led to the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (1974), to John Paul II’s visit to the Synagogue of Rome in 1986, and to documents such as We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah (1998) and The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable (2015), which affirms that the Church does not conduct an institutional mission to the Jews while still confessing Christ as the universal Saviour.

The declaration must be read with the dogmatic teaching of Lumen Gentium 16, which explains how those who have not received the Gospel are related to the People of God, and with Ad Gentes on the Church’s missionary duty. It speaks of rays of truth in other religions, not of their equality with Christianity. Later questions about how these religions relate to salvation in Christ were addressed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Dominus Iesus (2000).

For the apologetics and ecclesiology tracts on this site, Nostra Aetate shows the Church holding together two convictions the manuals also teach: that natural reason and religious longing are found in all peoples, and that the fullness of revealed truth and the means of salvation are found in Christ and his Church.