Book Review: Models of Premillennialism

My review of Sung Wook Chung's and David Mathewson's Models of Premillennialism (2018, Cascade Books) has been published in Conspectus 28 (September 2019). The review includes a summary and critique of the book. Here is an excerpt:

Chung and Mathewson have produced a digestible review of premillennial eschatologies put forward since the second century, showing how each one developed and what its unique characteristics are. By restricting their scope to premillennialism, the authors avoided inundating the reader with too much information which is readily available elsewhere. I was particularly glad to discover that the majority view of evangelical theologians is premillennialism, where the impression I had was that it was a minority view among them (even if is evidently popular in the camp of dispensational laymen.) Even so, Chung and Mathewson are not polemical in their presentation, nor do they seek to persuade the reader to adopt any eschatological position.

The review is freely available here: https://www.sats.edu.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Conspectus-28-11-Woods.pdf.

Book review: Converging Destinies

Earlier this year, Stuart Dauermann published Converging Destinies: Jews, Christians, and the Mission of God. I reviewed it in Conspectus 24 and came to this conclusion:

Converging Destinies is a stimulating read and a valuable addition to several fields, including missiology, Jewish-Christian relations, postsupersessionism and Messianic Judaism. Dauermann prompts theological thought and praxis in his own idiosyncratic way, and he deserves to be read by the Evangelical audience targeted by this journal. Though the book has its flaws, they do not detract from the validity of the message itself—the convergence of Jews and Christians in the mission of God. May it come speedily and soon, and in our day!

Click this link to download the full review from SATS.

Book review: Searching Her Own Mystery

What is the basis for current dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church (and Christians in general) and the Jewish people? What theological points of contact exist between them? Is there connection merely historical, or is there a "living link" still in our age? Do they have a shared destiny? How should Christian doctrines of Christology and ecclesiology be shaped by a correct biblical perspective on genealogical Israel (the Jewish people)? What about the identity of Jesus as the priest, prophet and king of Israel: Does it mysteriously bind the church to the people of Israel?

Mark Kinzer addresses these questions (and more) in his new book, Searching Her Own Mystery (2015, Cascade Books). He examines key Catholic sacraments in the light of a twofold (bilateral) ecclesiology to produce a fresh and surprising, postsupersessionist perspective that finds Israel at the centre (with Christ in the centre of Israel). And there is also a surprising connection between Jewish kedushah (holiness) and Christian sacraments! Kinzer reviews five aspects of kedushah (relating to people, time, space, Word, and deeds) that serve as sacramental signs through the ministry of Jesus. Finally, the author concludes that, with Jesus continually present among his own (Jewish) people, as well as among people from all nations who believe in him, there must be some significant overlap, even "mutual-indwelling," between the two peoples of God. It is here that Messianic Jews play a particularly significant role as the living witness of the bond between these peoples.

For a more detailed synopsis of the book, see my review here: https://www.academia.edu/17417887/Searching_Her_Own_Mystery_by_Mark_S._Kinzer_.

Book Review: Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism

The book review below is something I wrote that was published in The South African Baptist Journal of Theology, 2010, volume 19. The book reviewed is Mark Kinzer's Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism: redefining Christian engagement with the Jewish people, published by Brazos Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2005 (ISBN 9781587431524). Kinzer works at the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute.

Post-Missionary, in Kinzer’s jargon, does not suggest an end for missions. Rather, Kinzer promotes a post-missionary form of Messianic Judaism which reaches out to Jews in a different manner to the traditional missionary approach. Instead of converting Jews to Christianity and instructing them to abandon “all things Jewish”, Kinzer promotes helping Jews to discover the Jewish Messiah within their Jewish faith, its practices, history, scriptures—and among the practising Jewish community.