Customer Reviews

The God of Israel and Christian Theology

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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.

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.

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.

One result of the Holocaust was Christianity's self-examination of its relationship to Israel and its contribution to anti-Semitism. Often, harsh criticism has been aimed at Christianity in light of these issues but there has not always been an attempt to offer an alternative understanding to help recover what seems to have been lost from Jewish-Christian relations. Soulen attempts to remedy this problem.

In the first part of his book Soulen correctly identifies the problem of supersessionism or the Church's belief of its superiority over Israel as the people of God. For Soulen, the standard model of interpreting the Scriptures (Old Testament) and the Apostolic witness (New Testament) developed over time into the belief that the Israel of old ceased to be important to the thinking of Christianity. And this unfortunate occurrence is highlighted in three pairs of thinkers: Justin Martyr and Irenaeus in the second century; Friedrich Schleiermacher and Immanuel Kant in the early modern period; and Karl Barth and Karl Rahner in the post-Holocaust years. Any self-examination on the part of Christianity must acknowledge this regrettable trend.

In his second part of the book, Soulen argues that supersessionism was the result of attempting to make the Scriptures center on Christ rather on the hope of the God of Israel as the Consummator of creation. Furthermore, Soulen presents the following proposition: the God of Israel works through his people Israel to bring about the consummation of creation, namely the eschatological shalom. If you accept Soulen's picture of the Scriptures, then you will not lose perspective on the permanent importance of Israel for the Church. What Soulen develops in this part of his book is the picture that both Testaments of the Christian bible underline the importance of Israel as the avenue through which God addresses, redeems and perfects his creation, for the Jew and for the Gentile.

Overall, I find it refreshing that Soulen endeavors to recast Christianity in light of what we have in the Bible rather than deconstruct Christianity and reinvent a new religion, as many current authors do. His reworking of our understanding of the valued place of Israel appears to parallel that of the early church, before the Fall of 70 CE, before Judaism and Christianity basically parted ways. If you are looking for an alternative model to consider regarding how the Church and Israel should interact, thus book is a good place to begin. You will come away a little frustrated as to what significance does Christ hold for Israel today. Soulen does tiptoe around that issue. But that question presented a problem for Paul (Romans 9-11) and so Soulen's work serves a good jumping off place to address the Messiah question from a Jewish perspective.

It has come time for all thinking Christians to re-examine the issue of God's "irrevocable" covenant with Israel (Rom 9-11). In this book, Soulen has given the Christian community one of the best tools available for dismantling traditional theological "supersessionism." This book should be used by all Seminary's for instructing the next generation of clergy. Soulen provides sound theological foundations and demonstrates thorough historical understanding. This is a "must have" for anyone who cares about Jewish-Christian issues.

Soulen's work is a nice introduction to the issue of supersessionism from someone who disagrees with this doctrine. The best part of this work is his categorization of the three main types of supersessionism: (1) punitive (Israel is rejected because of disobedience); (2) economic (Israel's special role has expired with the coming of the church); and (3) structural (the Hebrew Scriptures are ignored).
Soulen also does a good job of showing how theologians such as Kant and Schleiermacher have contributed to the view that God is forever done with national Israel.
The reader should be aware that this book is mostly historical and philosophical. It does not grapple with keys texts such as Matthew 21:43; Galatians 6:16; and 1 Peter 2:9-10. Thus, someone looking for a biblical examination of supersessionism will need to look elsewhere. Still, for an overall introduction to supersessionism from a historical point of view, this is a good book to get.

If you are interested in understanding the philosophical/ theological pinnings to the anti-Israel sentiment

running rampant in countries like Great Britain read chapter 3, "Christian Divinity without Jewish Flesh".

Kendall Soulen's analysis of the trajectory of Christian thought and theology is on target. The boasting about which the Apostle Paul warned the Roman Gentiles continues to bear deadly fruit. As a gentile and Yeshua believer I can only ask forgiveness for the hatred spewed from gentile and Christian circles. I wonder if Paul would say that since the wild olive branches no longer continue in goodness they now have been cut off. The irony of course is very few theologians would ever acknowledge this state of affairs.

Soulen's book will get you to rethink OT theology on a few levels. first is supersessionism and the place for Israel. Second, is God's dealing with mankind through the Promise(s) given to Abraham. This he says is a key to understanding many OT issues and passages and governs how God deals with Israel and the nations. Many other positive things to say, it is definetely worth the price, even though it gets a little thick in chapters where he traces the development of supersessionism (ie when talking about Rahner, Barth, etc). Not a long or hard read either.