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→"Supersessionism" as an ideology
=="Supersessionism" as an ideology==
Supersessionism makes supersession into an ideology, or "ism". This ideology is very rarely mentioned by Orthodox writers. Yet it is increasingly discussed by Protestant ones, whose definitions of it vary wildly: from the simple, fundamental belief that Christianity brought "something better" into the world<ref>Rabbi David Novak, "The Covenant in Rabbinic Thought", printed in Eugene Korn, "Two Faiths, One Covenant " p.67, cited with approval in "One Covenant of Grace", Committee on Church Doctrine Recommendation No. 2, Presbyterian Church of Canada, 2011. http://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/uploads/referrals_2011_one_covenant_of_grace_study_document_re_engagement_with_jewish_people.pdf</ref> to one where the Church's fulfillment of Israel's role supposedly condemns the Jews as a racial group.<ref>One Covenant "A Theological Understanding of Grace, Committee on Church Doctrine Recommendation No. 2the Relationship between Christians and Jews", General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Canada(USA), 20111987. http://presbyterianwww.notredamedesion.caorg/wp-content/uploadsen/referrals_2011_one_covenant_of_grace_study_document_re_engagement_with_jewish_peopledialogue_docs.pdfphp?a=2&id=65&categoria=altrechiese</ref>
===Orthodox Approval of Supersessionism===
Fr. Tonias wrote that St. Gregory of Nyssa would be considered "supersessionist" because he depicted “Moses and other figures of the Jewish Bible as kinsmen, fellow members of Israel, after which the members of the New Covenant should pattern their lives.”<ref>Id.</ref> Fr. Tonias said that the New Testament contained supersessionist language (citing Acts 15:14, 1 Pet. 2:10). He added that "the more refined" discussions in the early church on the topic came from polemics, but that Orthodoxy cannot easily dismiss the views of Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis because patristic writings are "formative" for the Church.<ref>Id.</ref>
===Orthodox Opposition to Criticism of Supersessionism===
In the "Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity", Prof. Eugene Pentiuc of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, wrote that supersessionism was discernible in Biblical passages<ref>Cited are: Mat 21:33-46, Gal 3:24-5, Rom 10:4</ref>, and that it was especially pronounced in writings about Old Testament [[Typology]]. He wrote that "many early Christian writings" portray the New Testament and the Church as superseding the Old Testament and what he calls the "old Israel".<ref>Prof. Eugene Pentiuc, “Judaism, Orthodoxy and”, cited in Fr. John McGuckin The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, p. 356.</ref> The entry claims that supersessionism fueled "anti-Jewish sentiment" and devalued the Old Testament, but that ''"the church as a whole has [kept] the two Testaments in a dialectical unity, in the main avoiding... supersessionism as [a] danger."''<ref>Id.</ref>
