There are two main themes in Gillet's challenging book: substitution of a ""dialogue"" for the one-sided ""mission to the Jews,"" and communion of Jews and Christians in the one Messiah. Without compromising the Christian position, Gillet shows how much Christians have to learn from Jews before they can hope to communicate their own faith that Jesus is the Christ. After a historical analysis of the intellectual relations between Christianity and Judaism, Gillet eruditely draws out the common element, challenging and correcting misconceptions about Rabbinism and Jewish life and teaching generally, which overlook the two millennia of Jewish thought between the Old Testament and modern times. He shows how close is this connection, and how deeply spiritual is much of Jewish theology. There is, he claims, nothing in Jewish belief that a Jew become Christian ought to reject, while Christianity is the completion and fulfilment of Judaism. Lev (Louis) Gillet (1893-1980), one of the twentieth century's greatest spiritual teachers and champion of an undivided Church, was born in Isere, France. After studying philosophy in Paris he became a 1st World War captive. On release he studied mathematics and psychology in Geneva, making the first French translation of Freud's On the Interpretation of Dreams. He then entered the Benedictine Order at Clervaux Abbey (Luxembourg) and was later transferred to Farnborough Abbey, under Dom Ferdinand Cabrol, and then San Anselmo (Rome), where he met those with whom he would later co-found the mixed Eastern-Western church monastery of Chevetogne (Belgium). He made monastic vows to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky whilst a member of a monastic community at Uniov (Galicia), returning to France where he was ordained into the Orthodox Church by concelebration in the eucharistic liturgy by Metropolitan Evlogy in May 1928. In 1938 he moved to the Fellowship of St Alban & St Sergius (London), continuing to preach and lead retreats for many Christian faiths in Europe and the Middle East. He was buried at the Greek Orthodox cathedral in London by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom. Many of his writings were first published under the pen name The Monk of the Eastern Church. Publications: Communion in the Messiah, 1942; Jesus: Dialogue with the Savior, 1963; The Burning Bush, 1976; In Thy Presence, 1977.
