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_.

Unity with distinction in Acts 15

The rulings of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 for Gentile believers were just four minimal rules that would allow table fellowship of believing ("Messianic") Jews with Gentile believers (Christians). Their eating together was an important sign of their unity in Christ without any discrimination against either party, yet without nullifying the Law of Moses. The Gentiles didn't convert to Judaism, and the Jews didn't abandon their Law. They continued to live as Torah-observant Jews, eating and worshiping side-by-side with Gentile believers. Now we are touching on what has been called unity with distinction, or what Mark Kinzer refers to as bilateral ecclesiology. (See my review of Kinzer's book, Postmissionary Messianic Judaism.) So there is still discrimination between (that is, "differentiation of", not "discrimination against") Jews and Gentiles - which starts in Genesis and continues to Revelation. Otherwise there was no need for the Jerusalem Council to make a ruling; they could have just said, "The Gentile believers are free from the Law just as we have been freed from the Law." But they didn't.

For a careful study of Acts 15, and Peter's mention that God made "no distinction" between Gentiles and Jews (Acts 15:9) in particular, see my paper, "Does Acts 15:9 refute intra-ecclesial Jew-Gentile distinction?"

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.