The introduction to The Jewish Imperial Imagination provides an overview of Baeck’s life, and of the book’s ventral argument. It shows how the Jewish Question – the discussion about emancipation and the place of Jews in modern society – was intertwined with other questions throughout the nineteenth century, including the questions of colonialism and imperial expansion. Instead of focusing on the nation-state, it shows the need to look at the imperial context. This is valid for Baeck’s thought, and German-Jewish thought more broadly. Finally, the introduction offers a theoretical framework for such analysis by developing the concept of “Jewish imperial imagination” as a way of moving beyond a simple dichotomy of ascribing to or resisting hegemonic narratives.

The Second Vatican saw a radical shift in the Catholic Church’s attitude toward other religions. This chapter examines the preconciliar attitudes and events that led to interreligious dialogue featuring as a major pastoral teaching of the post-Vatican II church. The reception of the council’s teachings is examined by the witness of the popes since the 1960s and the transformation in how Catholics of the postconciliar church relate with their neighbors of other faiths.