The God of Israel and Christian Theology [Paperback]

R. Kendall Soulen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 1996

Along with this first full-scale critique of Christian supersessionism, Soulen's own constructive proposal regrasps the narrative unity of Christian identity and the canon through an original and important insight into the divine-human convenant, the election of Israel, and the meaning of history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The blessing of God is available only through the blessing of an other; but the blessing of an other is built into the very constitution of humanity as Jew and Gentile.  The beauty of this notion is breathtaking. --The Scottish Journal of Theology

In this superb book, Kendall Soulen is proposing nothing less than a
particular Christian reading of the Bible that is both faithful to the central
confession of the church and nonsupersessionist toward the Jewish people.
--Theology Today

This book makes a very important contribution to Christian theology.... [I]t demonstrates how important God's promises to Israel are for Christian understandings of God's activity in ... human history. --Anglican Theological Review

This excellent book on an important topic deserves a wide reading. - Theological Studies

From the Back Cover

"This is the most promising proposal to date for overcoming Christian doctrinal supersessionism while maintaining the continuing theological importance of Judaism for Christianity and not sacrificing the christological claims historically considered essential to Christian identity..."  George Lindbeck, Yale Divinity School

"A penetrating proposal for a Christianity that does more than pay lip service to its loyalty to the God of Israel....Soulen shapes a Christian theology not embarrassed by the Hebrew Bible and the continuing existence of the Jewish people.  It is a major contribution toward a Christianity without anti-Judaism."  Michael Wyschogrod, author of The Body of Faith

"Kendall Soulen has written a marvelous piece of critical and constructive theology.  Few contemporary works in historical and systematic theology are as thoroughly biblical in orientation as is this one.  It is a major effort to think through afresh how Christian theology is peculiarly and truly Christian while at the same time thoroughly accountable to the Old Testament and the continuing and primary place of Israel and its story for Christian faith.  This is a very important and mature theological work from one of our most promising younger theologians."  Patrick Miller, Princeton Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Fortress Press (June 11, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800628837
• ISBN-13: 978-0800628833
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unity at what price?, January 11, 2002

By 

Timothy W. Crews (Chandler, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The God of Israel and Christian Theology (Paperback)

I agree with Dr. Soulen completely on his assessment of the problem. Supersession is simply incorrect doctrine. I agree with all of his analysis of the latent problems that exist in supersessionist doctrine. I am completely in favor of unifying the content of all of the Scriptures, Old and New Testament.

I disagree strongly with Dr. Soulen's new interpretive scheme that accomplishes these goals, however. I do believe there is a way to unify the Scriptures, and to reconcile Old and New Testament, Law and Grace, Israel and the Church. But Dr. Soulen believes it is necessary to see God _primarily_ as consummator rather than redeemer, while I would propose that the secret to unifying the scriptures is to see him as the revelator.

Anyway, the field is complex and would be difficult to cover in a short review. The following two quotes from the concluding chapter of Dr. Soulen's book will have to suffice to illustrate the implications of his approach:

Page 172:

"The church is commissioned to make disciples of all the nations... It has no comparable commission to seek the "conversion" of the Jewish people. This is especially true of the gentile church. Nothing in the Apostolic Witness [the New Testament] remotely suggests the validity of a gentile-Christian mission to non-Christian Jews. Christians should not hide or minimize their faith in conversation with Jews. But the church, above all in its gentile portion, should cease organized mission efforts among the Jewish people. Instead the church of the Gentiles should seek to live before the Jewish people in such a way that Israel can reasonably infer that here the nations of the world truly worhip the God of Israel and in this way manifest the truth of its gospel. (see Rom 11:13-14)."

Page 175:

"The unity of the Christian canon is not best unlocked by insisting that everything in the Bible points toward Jesus Christ... Without doubt everything turns on Christ, but not everything concerns Christ."

I am trying to be fair in extracting enough of the above passages to show that Dr. Soulen is not completely one-sided. If I had left out some of those sentences, of course the passages would have seemed more extreme.

Nevertheless, I disagree with Dr. Soulen on these specific points and several others. I do believe that the unity of the Scriptures is best unlocked by showing how everything points toward Jesus Christ. I believe the Scriptures document the gradual revelation of the nature of God, for his own glory. I believe that Hebrews 1:1-4 states that Jesus is the final Word of revelation of God's character.

I think it is possible to see the Scriptures this way and still avoid the problems that Dr. Soulen (correctly) decries, those of triumphalism and latent gnosticism.

Despite our disagreement, the motivation segment of this book is right-on, and I am glad that Dr. Soulen has exposed these problems as well as he did. I hope this can be the beginning of further discussion of ways to resolve these issues.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will change the way you think about the Bible., October 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The God of Israel and Christian Theology (Paperback)

We use the phrase "Judeo-Christian" constantly, implying that there is a common faith tradition between the Christians and the Jews. But the history of biblical interpretation by Christians has usually relegated the Jewish contribution to the past, treating the Old Testament as a kind of prologue -- an old testament -- which has been superseded by the truth -- the new testament. Dr. Soulen points out the tragic error in this approach. The book is neither liberal nor conservative, not fundamentalist or deconstructionist. It is a confident and hopeful basis for Christians to understand their faith and their Bible while still recognizing the ongoing reality and necessity of God's covenant with the Jews.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed the way I read the Scriptures, October 28, 2003

By 

matthew pattillo (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The God of Israel and Christian Theology (Paperback)

I've long sensed in my reading of the Bible that the writers of the New Testament books took their Jewish heritage and its meaning in God's interaction with the world far more seriously than later Christian exegetes have. The most striking example of this, of course, is the still pervasive opinion in Christendom that Saul/Paul renounced his Judaism in favor of Christianity, and advised others that Christian grace had nullified the Law of Moses. To paraphrase Soulen, Christian theology has chronically relegated Israel and God's interaction with Israel to a propaedeutic function, serving only to prepare for and foreshadow God's real work in Christ. Christian theologians have tended to interpret all of history within the economy of sin and redemption, with the result that God's distinction between Jew and Gentile is purely functional - a means to an end, namely Christ's redemption - and, therefore, after Christ being Jewish no longer has meaning in God's plan. To support this argument Galatians will inevitably be quoted: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." True enough, but in chapters 9-11 of Romans Paul explicitly rejects the collapsing of the Jew-Gentile distinction (and do we really want to argue that the distinctions "male" and "female" no longer have any significance in God's plan?).

Soulen demonstrates convincingly that supersessionism is not a new phenomenon, but permeates Christian theology almost from inception. While it is a bit discouraging to see that our most influential Christian theologians harbor crucial contradictions within their construal of the Biblical narrative, in this case it seems true that a problem well defined is a problem half solved. Soulen recontextualizes the economy of sin and redemption within the larger economy of creation and consummation, which enables a more coherent and consistent reading of the Biblical narrative, and holds great promise for the restoration of continuity between the Old and New Testaments.

Taking note of the review above questioning Soulen's comments on the centrality of Christ in the Biblical narrative, I would contend that Soulen's recontextualization does not minimize Christ's work, but rather clarifies how Christ's redemption victoriously accomplishes God's original intentions for God's creation. The bold thesis is that sin did not thwart God's purposes for creation, or cause God to resort to "Plan B." This is not to say that Christ's crucifixion was part of God's original intentions, but rather that, while Christ's crucifixion and resurrection were made necessary by humanity's sin, our sin and God's redemption have been beautifully, mysteriously taken up by God into God's original creative purposes.

Highly, highly recommended reading.