My comment is more about the Helsinki Consultation than it is about Dr. Doukhan's talk. I read the paper and watched the video— I have a question about one minor point which I will address later.
My concern about the Helsinki Consultation is hard to pin down, but it is more a general uneasiness with the feel of the site and the direction the conferences seem to be pulling. This is not a criticism of Dr. Doukhan as I am not finding fault with his paper or with the fact that he attended the conference. Actually, I think we should interact more rather than less with people of very different backgrounds and views. If there is anything to be concerned about (and I think there is) we should not disappear into isolation.
Some of the issues I am concerned about have already been expressed by another author, so rather than repeat work that has already been done I will link to it and quote from it.
The Helsinki Consultation – Messianic Ecumenism
... Mark Kinzer, a driving force behind The Helsinki Consultation, unashamedly calls it Messianic Jewish Ecumenism.
... the schedule shows that there was a Hebrew Mass conducted on the Sunday morning of the conference. I wonder if this was just for the Hebrew Catholics in attendance?
Here is another link at the same site.
Mark Kinzer & Ecumenical Messianic Judaism
But he [Kinzer] cannot claim to speak for all of Messianic Jews, or claim that a Messianic Judaism which mainly draws on ecumenical Catholic theology and rabbinical Tradition is more of a Judaism than a Messianic Judaism influenced by evangelical Protestant theology and a Karaite approach to Scripture.
I won't re-state any of the other points or argue with them as I am sympathetic with the overall concern; I will let these two links speak for themselves.
My concern is that we not use this kind of issue as an excuse to disengage and remain isolated. There is far to much paranoia— too many conspiracy theories. I too am concerned about the possibility that the wider movement toward Jewish-Christian reconciliation could be hijacked by a synthesis of “ecumenical Catholic theology and rabbinical Tradition”.
The fact that there are people promoting an “ecumenical Catholic theology” within the larger Jewish-Christian dialog does not mean that the whole dialog is ecumenical in nature. I hope that we can remain focused on dialog and reconciliation with a spirit of goodwill, while at the same time opposing a move to take us in the wrong direction.
