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Supersessionism

34 bytes removed, 04:32, September 1, 2013
Orthodox Criticism of Supersessionism
Fr. Yves Dubois of St. John Kronstadt Church pointed out that while in Luke 2:32 Simeon called Christ "the glory of thy people Israel", the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord has him call Christ "the glory of the newly-chosen Israel."<ref>Fr. Yves Dubois, "An Orthodox Perspective", cited in "Christian-Jewish Dialogue", edited by Helen Fry, 1996, p.34</ref> He wrote that this twists Scriptural texts to make ''"Judaism and the Jewish community redundant, substituting the Gentile Church for Israel."'' He defines "supersessionism" as this substitution of ''"the Gentile Christian Church for the people of Israel"'' after God had made promises to Israel. Fr. Dubois writes that it ''"is theologically untenable because it questions God's consistency."''
This hinges on the liturgy's insertion of the phrase "newly-chosen Israel". The phrase "New Israel" is common in Orthodox writing. Herman Blaydoe, the Orthodox Monachos forum moderator, commentson the term:
:The Church is the continuation of Israel. We call it the New Israel, not because it no longer includes the Jewish people, but because it now includes ALL people. It goes beyond what it was; it does not replace what was before.<ref>Orthodoxy and Supersessionism, Monachos Forum, http://www.monachos.net/conversation/topic/7236-the-orthodox-church-and-supersessionism/page-2</ref>
Another way to understand this is Thus Fr. Thomas HopkoFeodor Lyudogovsky comments about the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord that the hymn writer's explanation: paraphrase contains the perspective revealed with ''"God then sends his onlythe Incarnation -begotten Son… to be Christ's Church, the New newly chosen Israel, or in which yesterday's gentiles and believing Jews became, in the real IsraelSavior's words (John 10:16), to show what Israel isone flock."''<ref>Fr. Thomas HopkoFeodor Lyudogovsky, The Names of Jesus"Сретение Господне: Jesus- The FirstbornВетхий днями – значит Вечный", February 14, 2013. http://ancientfaithwww.comnsad.ru/podcastsarticles/namesofjesus/jesus_sretenie-gospodne-vethij-dnyami-znachit-_the_firstborn/printvechnyj</ref> This relates to St. Paul's distinction between an outward identity and an inner, spiritual one: ''"he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."''(Romans 2:29)
==References==
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