Rosner Healing the Schism

Karl Barth, Franz Rosenzweig, and the New Jewish-Christian Encounter
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68359-494-9
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 288 Seiten

Reihe: Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology

The past and future of Jewish-Christian dialogue The history of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity is storied and tragic. However, recent decades show promise as both parties reflect on their self-definitions and mutual contingency and consider possible ways forward. In Healing the Schism, Jennifer M. Rosner maps the new Jewish-Christian encounter from its origins in the early twentieth-century pioneers to its current representatives. Rosner first traces the thought of Karl Barth and Frank Rosenzweig and brings them into conversation. Rosner then outlines the reassessments and developments of post-Holocaust theological architects that moved the dialogue forward and set the stage for today. She considers the recent work of Messianic Jewish theologian Mark S. Kinzer and concludes by envisioning future possibilities. With clarity and rigor, Rosner offers a robust perspective of Judaism and Christianity that is post-supersessionist and theologically orthodox. Healing the Schism is essential reading for understanding the perils and promise of Messianic Jewish identity and Jewish-Christian theological conversation.

Jennifer M. Rosner (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is affiliate assistant professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. She edited a collection of Mark S. Kinzer's essays, Israel's Messiah and the People of God.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rosner, Jennifer M.

Leseproben

1 “SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS”: KARL BARTH’S DOCTRINE OF ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH INTRODUCTION Karl Barth has been described as a “theological Everest,”1 and any attempt at Christian theological reflection in the twenty-first century must reckon with his impact and influence. From beginning to end, the content of Barth’s theology is deeply informed by and connected to the historical circumstances in which he lived and wrote. In fact, Barth’s theology is only properly understood when it is placed in its historical context. Though Barth’s theology is organized systematically, what lies behind the system is the social and political context in which he lived.2 For these reasons, Timothy Gorringe claims that “Barth must be read ‘prophetically’ rather than ‘systematically,’ as a theologian who is above all concerned with the way in which God’s Word shapes history, rather than in setting out an account of the divine essence.”3 Latent within Barth’s theology and constant throughout his entire career is his intense and active interest in and engagement with politics and social ethics. Barth was continually assessing the situation of his time and writing theology that was highly relevant to his social, political, and religious context, and these elements determined the form and structure of his theology. Barth’s practice of exegeting his surroundings in order to express his theological ideas—constructing theology with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other—buttresses both the logic and the delivery of his theological system. It is for this reason that Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt postulates that Barth’s methodology is his theological biography.4 His development as a theologian was deeply connected with the historical setting that encircled him, and for our purposes it is significant to note that Barth’s writing is informed by three of the four major historical factors we noted at the beginning of the last chapter.5 With regard to our specific focus in this study, Barth is among the most significant Christian pioneers of the new Jewish-Christian encounter, and both the context and the content of Barth’s writings open new theological avenues for conceiving of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Barth’s theology sets the course for a Christian understanding of salvation history, election, and Christian mission in which Israel figures prominently. In the words of Mark Lindsay, “While it would be disingenuous to suggest that Barth was a deliberate pioneer of interfaith theological dialogue in the same sense as people like Paul van Buren and Hans Küng, it would be equally incorrect to suggest that Barth was entirely ambivalent about the state of Jewish-Christian relations, or that he did not work hard to eliminate the anti-Jewish elements that had for so long contaminated the Church’s teaching.”6 In a book entitled Prospects for Post-Holocaust Theology, Stephen Haynes claims that “It is not an exaggeration to say that Barth’s understanding of Israel has had the kind of influence on Protestant theology that ‘Nostra aetate’ has had on Catholic thinking about Israel.”7 In our attempt to trace the theological origins of the new Jewish-Christian encounter, Barth’s impact upon twentieth-century construals of Israel and the church positions his theology as our starting point. With Marshall’s framing question in mind, our assessment of Barth will focus upon the extent to which he upholds both the universal, ecclesially mediated saving mission of Christ as well as the irrevocable election of Israel (which necessarily entails the ongoing practice of Judaism).8 My investigation of Barth’s Christology, as well as his treatment of Israel as a people and Judaism as a religion, is undergirded by two specific loci of Barth’s thought: election and ethics. For this reason, my explication of Barth’s work will focus primarily on the Church Dogmatics, and volume II/2 in particular.9 While my assessment of Barth will not be limited to his thoughts in this volume, it will serve as the foundation of the discussion as I seek to put Barth’s theology in conversation with Marshall’s question. In order to put this particular section of Barth’s theology in context, I will briefly review the structure of the Dogmatics. In volume I, Barth lays the framework for his entire theological project by explicating the threefold form of the word of God and establishing the Trinitarian grid that informs his theological program. Volume II is dedicated to Barth’s doctrine of God, and the second half of this volume expounds the two overarching concepts that anchor our particular study: the “Election of God” (§§32–§35) and the “Command of God” (§§36–§39). It is within these pages that Barth offers his most thorough reflections on “Israel and the Church” and “Gospel and Law.” In volumes III, IV and what would have been V, Barth lays out the three primary movements of his theology: creation, reconciliation and redemption. Building upon the theological groundwork of volumes I and II, the later sections of the Dogmatics reflect Barth’s thought in its most thorough and developed form. With regard to our particular doctrinal focus, that Barth treats election and ethics in the same volume reveals one of the central thrusts of his entire theological system. As Barth lays out his doctrine of election, he characteristically begins with Jesus Christ, who is both the elect man and the electing God. For Barth, the election of the community of God (Israel and the church) and the election of the individual take place within the election of Christ. While, according to Barth, “the doctrine of election is the sum of the Gospel,”10 one cannot speak of the gospel without in the same breath speaking about the law. In electing human beings, God calls them to obedience and responsibility. In Barth’s words: “It is as He makes Himself responsible for man that God makes man, too, responsible. Ruling grace is commanding grace.… The one Word of God is both Gospel and Law.”11 Just as God is made known in his acts, so too is humanity. Humans, therefore, cannot remain neutral in the face of God’s election, which claims them in their entirety. According to Barth, “The love of God in Jesus Christ intends and seeks and wills us in our totality.”12 Thus, for Barth, election and ethics are inseparable. God’s election of Jesus Christ is God’s primary self-disclosing act, and humanity’s inclusion in that election necessarily implies its accountability. Humanity’s election is actualized in its recognition of and obedience to the claim and command of God. As Barth puts it, “God actualises His covenant with man by giving him commands, and man experiences this actualisation by the acceptance of these commands.”13 Human beings—whether they recognize it or not—are elected in Jesus Christ to be covenant partners with God and are therefore placed under the divine command.14 As we will see, this tight connection between election and ethics significantly undergirds Barth’s ecclesiological framework and thereby informs his contribution to providing an answer to Marshall’s question. Throughout this chapter, as we gain an increasingly clear understanding of these facets of Barth’s thought, our explication will gradually give way to assessment and critique. THE ELECTION OF GOD IN BARTH’S THEOLOGY THE ELECTION OF JESUS CHRIST Barth posits that theology must begin with Jesus Christ,15 and his discussion of election is therefore christologically grounded. God’s movement toward humanity in Christ creates an irrevocable partnership that is constitutive of God’s very being. God’s election of Christ is “the decree of God behind and above which there can be no earlier or higher decree and beside which there can be no other, since all others serve only the fulfilment of this decree.”16 As Barth will discuss in volume III of the Church Dogmatics, all of creation provides the setting for the divine-human covenant relationship grounded in the election of Christ. In Barth’s words, “The purpose and therefore the meaning of creation is to make possible the history of God’s covenant with man which has its beginning, its centre and its culmination in Jesus Christ.”17 The election of Christ makes manifest God’s decision to be gracious toward humanity, and this grace of God forms the very heart of the gospel: “In the beginning, before time and space as we know them, before creation, before there was any reality distinct from God which could be the object of the love of God or the setting for His acts in freedom, God anticipated and determined within Himself … that the goal and meaning of all His dealings with the as yet non-existent universe should be the fact that in His Son He would be gracious towards man, uniting Himself with him.”18 As the “subject and object” of this determination, Christ is the election of God’s covenant with...