Paul and Supersessionism Revisited

Forthcoming Book

Scot McKnight and I are editing and contributing to a book called God’s Israel and the Israel of God: Paul and Supersessionism. Pre-order now!

In sum, the early church believed that the story of Israel was fulfilled in Jesus and continued in the church. But what about Israel, the Jewish people, what is their state and fate vis-a-vis God? For some, this led to the church replacing or superseding the Jews, as if the Jews had been given their bite at the apple, they spat it out, so they forfeit their right to be God’s people. In the end, this type of theology yielded the anti-Semitism of the middle ages and contributed to the Holocaust as well.

Scot and I are very allergic to replacement theology, nonetheless, we believe that the testimony of Paul is that Jesus really is the climax of the covenant and the hope of Israel. Like others, even among the Paul within Judaism school, we do not see Paul as offering a sonderweg, or special way of salvation for Israel, and we critique views which express disgust with Paul for not being a flat-out religious pluralist. However, the horror of the Holocaust looms large over this topic and while we contend for a compelling reading of Paul in terms of his belief in promise and fulfilment, we also want a responsible application of Paul for Christian communities today.

We invited several contributors from various backgrounds such as Lynn Cohick, Ben Witherington, Janelle Peters, Ronald Charles, and David Rudolph to chime in on this subject and it makes for a well-rounded and robust discussion.

So if you are into Paul, the Jews, Scripture, Israel, and inter-religious dialogue, you’ll enjoy this book.