Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism: A Way beyond Replacement Theology

355 Pages·2018·4.993 MB·English

by  Steven D. Aguzzi

Israel, the Church, and
Millenarianism
Since the calls of the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic theologians have
sought to overcome an overarching problem facing Jewish–Christian relations,
the concept of “supersessionism”; the idea that God has revoked the spiritual and
historical promises made to the Jewish people in favour of granting those same
privileges to a predominantly Gentile Church.
Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism breaks new ground by applying an
ancient principle to the problem of Israel’s “replacement”: the early Church’s
promotion of millennialism. Utilizing the best in Patristic research, Aguzzi argues
that these earliest Christian traditions made room for the future of Israel because
Christ’s reign in the Church was viewed as provisional to his historical reign on
earth—Israel’s role in salvation history was and is not yet complete. Aguzzi’s
research also opens the door for a greater Catholic understanding of the millennial
principle, not shying away from its validity and relevance for understanding the
importance of safeguarding Jewish particularity, while concluding that the
Synagogue and the Church are indeed on a parallel trajectory; “. . . what will their
. . . [Israel’s] . . . acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15).
Ultimately, the divine will is fulfilled through both Christian and Jewish means,
in history, while each community is dependent, in different ways, upon the
unfolding of God’s future and the coming Parousia of Christ.
Steven D. Aguzzi is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, and on
the adjunct faculty of Duquesne University’s theology department. He earned his
PhD in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University in December of 2013,
with a research specialization in Jewish–Christian comparative theology. He is
widely published on the topic of supersessionism and Jewish–Catholic relations,
particularly in ecumenical journals, and his work is constructive in its attempts
to utilize traditional eschatologies in an effort to express a Christian theology
that takes Judaism seriously, on its own terms. Aguzzi also holds an M.Div. from
Princeton Theological Seminary, with specializations in comparative theology and
ecumenical ecclesiology. Aguzzi has established ecumenical relations in the
Pittsburgh area, and speaks nationally on the topic of post-Shoah, post-replacement
theology.
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Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism
A Way beyond Replacement Theology
Steven D. Aguzzi
Israel, the Church, and
Millenarianism
A Way beyond Replacement
Theology
Steven D. Aguzzi
First published 2018
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© 2018 Steven D. Aguzzi
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Aguzzi, Steven D., author.
Title: Israel, the church, and millenarianism : a way beyond replacement theology /
Steven D. Aguzzi.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Routledge new critical thinking in religion, theology, and biblical studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016057293| ISBN 9781472485229 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315590141 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Millennialism. | Church—History of doctrines. |
Judaism—Relations—Christianity. | Christianity and other religions—Judaism.
Classification: LCC BT892 .A38 2017 | DDC 231.7/6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016057293
ISBN: 978-1-4724-8522-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-59014-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Contents
Forewordby Jürgen Moltmann ix
Preface and acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
PART I
Supersessionism and Nostra Aetate 23
1. The problem of supersessionism 25
Types of supersessionism 25
Supersessionist hermeneutics and the Bible 29
Supersessionism: a theological problem 39
2. Nostra Aetateand its reception: supersessionism
challenged 57
The shift to the relation to non-Christian religions 58
Nostra Aetate and its reception: the irrevocable call 60
Theological tensions after Nostra Aetate 69
PART II
Millenarianism: a valid part of Church history 87
3. Millenarianism explored 89
Millenarianism defined and contextualized 91
Revelation 20: an intentionally chiliastic text 93
The amillennial interpretation of Revelation 20 is flawed 97
Millenarianism in the Gospels and Pauline corpus 100
vi Contents
4. Millenarianism and early Church tradition 115
Millenarianism as orthodox eschatology 115
Responding to the refutation of chiliastic normativity 118
The earliest detractors of chiliasm: Marcion, Gaius, Origen 121
5. A shift in eschatology: the Church becomes the kingdom 133
Eusebius (ca. 263–339 C.E.): the Church and the Roman
kingdom 134
Augustine (354–430 C.E.): the Church and the kingdom
of God 135
PART III
Millenarianism, heresy, and contemporary Catholic
theology 143
6. The hermeneutics of heresy 145
St. Vincent of Lérins: determining valid doctrine 148
7. Millenarianism: creeds, Ecumenical Councils, and heresy? 159
The Apostles’ Creed 160
An early Council responding to Montanism, not Chiliasm 164
Nicaea (325 C.E.) and Rome (382 C.E.) 165
Constantinople (381 C.E.): “whose kingdom shall have
no end” 171
Ephesus (431 C.E.): no direct or indirect reference to
millenarianism 174
8. Recent magisterial statements on millenarianism 189
Pius XII and the declaration against millenarianism 189
The 1994 Catechism and millenarianism 192
Benedict XVI and the spiritual, Eucharistic millennium 194
PART IV
Millenarianism and post-supersessionism 203
9. Prolegomena to a Christian millenarian theology of Judaism 205
Jewish eschatological hope in relation to supersessionism
and millenarianism 209
Moltmann’s mitigated millenarianism and the provisional
Church 217
Three problematic questions 222
Contents vii
10. Millenarianism, supersessionism, and the messianic kingdom 235
Millenarianism, amillennialism, and economic supersessionism 236
Millenarianism, amillennialism, and punitive supersessionism 247
Millenarianism, amillennialism, and structural supersessionism 255
Constructing ideas on the nature of the millennial age 262
Conclusion 287
Bibliography 291
Index 319

Foreword
This book came out of the author’s dissertation “Israel, the Church and the
Eschatological Question: Moltmann’s Millenarianism and the Jewish–Catholic
Question”, Duquesne University 2013. I take the chance to praise the author’s
erudition and to give reason for my “mitigated” millenarianism.
The problem is the internal connection between the relationships of the Church
to Israel and to the kingdom of Christ.
The author describes in Part I how recent Catholic theologians deal with their
traditional identification: “The Church is the kingdom of Christ”. In Part II he
presents his own thesis: the expectation of the kingdom of Christ is an essential
element in the history of the ancient Church: the Church of Christ is not yet the
kingdom of Christ. In Part III he returns to the declaration of the Catholic Church
today on the Christian–Jewish question. And finally in Part IV he explains his
own messianic millenarianism and “post-supersessionism”. The expectation of the
messianic kingdom of Christ unites already today the Church and Israel to a
partnership on the way.
The attentive reader may wish another book of the author on the millenarianistic
discussions in the protestant Churches since Johann Heinrich Alsted, Herborn 1627,
his famous student Amos Comenius and the great rabbi of Amsterdam Mennaseh
ben Israel and his influential book Spes Israelis 1650. Today the evangelical
dispensationalism is widespread; remember the Day Afterseries.
My own expectation is an eschatology in the light of Christ’s resurrection. This
is the true eschatological event in the history of humankind and nature. I refuse
the speculations of the seven ages of the world (Talmud), the three world kingdoms
(Joachim of Fiore) and the five monarchies (Quintomonarchianism) and with these
any form of dispensationalism.
The apostle Paul is teaching us to understand the resurrection of Christ not as
an exception but as the beginning of a process: “Christ the firstfruit, afterward
they that are Christ’s at his coming, then comes the end when he shall have
delivered the kingdom to God . . . the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”
(1 Corinthians 15:22–28). Those “who belong to Christ” will experience a
resurrection “from the dead” as Christ was raised “from the dead”. Christ’s
Parousia will happen in the time of death, and with the destruction of death the
universal resurrection of the dead is reached: “For since by man came the death,