A Life in Dialogue: Building Bridges Between Catholics and Jews (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781548484835)

For the last 40 years, Dr. Eugene J. Fisher has been a visible and articulate presence in Jewish-Christian dialogue. Born in Grosse Point, Michigan, he studied at Sacred Heart Seminary during Vatican II. He earned an M.A. in Catholic theology at the University of Detroit in 1968, and went on to gain M.A. in Hebrew Studies from New York University in1971, and a Ph.D. in 1976. As he recalls, when he began at NYU, "I had stepped into a career in a field that did not even exist before the Second Vatican Council: Catholic-Jewish relations." Fisher's doctoral dissertation examined the presentation of Jews and Judaism in post-Vatican II Catholic religion textbooks. In 1977, he became the first lay Associate Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in charge of Catholic-Jewish relations, a position that he held until 2007. He has lectured throughout the world on a range of topics such as antisemitism, portrayals of Jews in theater and film, the Bible, liturgy, and catechesis. He has published some 30 books and monographs, and 300 articles in major religious journals, many into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and German. Fisher was the principal contributor to several ground-breaking documents of the American bishops, including their 1988 statements "God's Mercy Endures Forever: Guidelines on the Presentation of Jews and Judaism in Catholic Preaching" and "Criteria for the Evaluation of Dramatizations of the Passion." He co-edited with the late Rabbi Leon Klenicki the definitive collection The Saint for Shalom: How Pope John Paul II Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations: The Complete Texts 1979-2005. Dr. Fisher has been a Consultor to the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and a member of the International Vatican-Jewish Liaison Committee. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize by Israeli Jewish scholars. Since his retirement, he has served as Distinguished Professor of Theology at Saint Leo University, and he continues to work to implement the vision of the Second Vatican Council. Dr. Fisher is married to Catherine, and they have a daughter, Sarah.