Abstract
The impact of the Shoah on Christian biblical and theological studies has been significant. The Christian doctrine of supersessionism, the replacement of the Jews and Judaism by the Christian church, has come in for particular criticism. Some more traditional scholars have either ignored these critiques or suggested that they were shaped not by critical study of the biblical text but by Christian guilt. It is also argued that the supersessionist argument is so thoroughly woven into the Christian story that extracting it would destroy the story itself. For some, it appears that there is no Christianity without supersessionism. This paper argues not only that this challenge to supersessionism was indeed the result of post-Shoah reflection, but that such challenges were appropriate and necessary. It does this in part by considering the case of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose early citations of the “teachings of contempt” were challenged by the violence of Nazis and the clarity of their intent to destroy both the Jews and, eventually, the church. A non-supersessionist Christianity is both possible and necessary, not simply to preserve the relationship between Christians and Jews, but to enable both communities to engage in the work of “consummation” and “redemption” that God has entrusted to them.
Highlights
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I will consider the case of one figure who illustrates the dawning of a realization that came too late: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer has been lauded for his theology, especially his proclamation of a “religionless Christianity”
Summary
In perhaps the most tone-deaf statement ever made by a major scholar, N. Paul no more offers an answer to the conundrum of Israel and Messiah Jesus, than does Job to the problem of evil He does effectively put a spike into simplistic theologies of supersessionism and replacement (see Bieringer and Pollefeyt 2012; Boccaccini and Segovia 2016; Nanos and Zetterholm 2015). In the post-Shoah, era all of this slowly became clear While both before and after the Second World War most Christian thinkers, even those more or less sympathetic to their Jewish contemporaries, continued to follow the old tropes of the “teachings of contempt”, a few, and a few more, began to reckon with their dreadful impact. I will consider the case of one figure who illustrates the dawning of a realization that came too late: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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