Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

QUARTERLY REVIEW, WINTER 1984
the redemption is beyond history. That judgment generated a
fundamental continuing problem of Christianity. In its faithfulness to
its vision of Christ come—pitted against the shocking reality of a
world of suffering and evil and poverty—Christianity is continually
tempted to answer: "This vale of tears is not the real world. The world
of suffering and oppression does not matter. It is trivial or secondary.
The world that really counts is the spiritual world. That is where you
can be born again—and free right now." But this finding betrays the
fundamental claim of Judaism that life itself and not only after life will
be perfected.
As they struggled with the meaning of their faithfulness to Jesus,
Christians went on to make a second error, when the destruction of
the temple came a generation later. But this second error was again
the outgrowth of a response of faith to a great historical event—another
paradigmatic, authentic act of a religious Jew. In the light of the
destruction, Jewish and Gentile Christians concluded that they had
misunderstood. They thought that Jesus was the fulfillment of the
Jewish promises within the bounds of Jewish life and hope going on
as before. But if the Jews do not accept Jesus, even after their temple is
destroyed, is this not a proof that God has in fact rejected them? And
using the same hermeneutical model, would not Gentile Christians
conclude that the acceptance of Christianity in the world proves that
Jesus came not to continue the old and the original covenant, but
rather to bring a new covenant to humanity? And since the Jews failed
to understand, have they not forfeited the promise? In short, the
In short, the classic Christian interpretation that Christianity
has superseded Judaism is an understandable
hermeneutic, rooted in Jewish models of interpretation and
capable of being derived out of faithfulness to past Jewish
modes of thinking.
classic Christian interpretation that Christianity has superseded
Judaism is an understandable hermeneutic, rooted in Jewish models
of interpretation and capable of being derived out of faithfulness
to past Jewish modes of thinking. The paradox is that although
Jewish thinking is involved in arriving at this conclusion, the
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