The Ancient Christian Roots of Some Modern Anti-Zionism
Whoever the “new Jews” are, they’re not the ones living in Israel.
March 1, 2019
The Ancient Christian Roots of Some Modern Anti-Zionism
Whoever the “new Jews” are, they’re not the ones living in Israel.
According to a doctrine espoused by some of the earliest Christian thinkers, Jesus’ life and death brought an end to Jews’ identity as the chosen people, now replaced by the Christian church. To this idea, known as supersessionism or replacement theology, St. Augustine added what was later called the “teaching of contempt”—that Jews are condemned to suffer for their rejection of Jesus and complicity in his death. These doctrines were renounced by the Vatican and by most Protestant denominations following World War II. Yet, writes Jon D. Levenson, they have resurfaced, in modern guise, in anti-Zionist rhetoric. Take for instance, the decision of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to endorse divestment from Israel in 2004:
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