Mark Kinzer: Searching Her Own Mystery

Mark S. Kinzer, Searching Her Own Mystery: Nostra Aetate, the Jewish People, and the Identity of the Church (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2015), 262 pages, ISBN 9781498203319.

The Messianic Jewish movement includes a broad spectrum of claims regarding authentic Jewish life and expression of faith in Jesus as Messiah. Mark Kinzer represents one band of thought within that spectrum and is recognized for his scholarly work in Jewish-Christian relations, particularly his advocacy for inclusion of the Catholic Church in Jewish-Christian dialogue. Although never officially joining Roman Catholicism, his extensive familiarity with and knowledge of Catholic tradition was gained during many years of work within a Catholic Charismatic community. Coupled with his ethnic Jewish family background, Kinzer now focuses on the 1965 Roman Catholic declaration Nostra Aetate as the backdrop for furthering his efforts to develop the identity of the Church in linkage with the Jewish people.

Nostra Aetate (NA) promotes the reversal of centuries-long antagonism toward those of other non-Christian religions; most significantly, §4 specifically addresses the Jewish people and Judaism. Searching Her Own Mystery (SHOM) is Kinzer’s attempt to evaluate NA-4 for the contribution it may have had in overturning Christian antagonism towards the Jewish people; he also seeks to bring Jewish identity to the foreground of the Church’s purview. Ultimately, SHOM’s nine chapters and four appendices comprise Kinzer’s next step in positing the need for a Bilateral Ecclesiology (xiii). Introduced in his earlier 2005 work, Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism (PMMJ), Bilateral Ecclesiology idealizes the Church comprised of Jews and non-Jews, yet retaining ethnic distinctiveness within two parallel but separate ecclesiological communities.

As in PMMJ, this latest work also reveals that Kinzer “is not motivated by a Christian missionary agenda” towards Jewish people (186), and this highlights a non-evangelical perspective that dominates throughout SHOM. Unlike PMMJ, however, some helpful, personal background is presented (Ch. 2) giving insight about key events that influenced Kinzer’s theological perspectives. It is also in this chapter that the first hint of soft antagonism towards evangelicalism comes to view as he distinguishes ‘Hebrew Christians’ (as differing little from those in Protestant Christian congregations) from Jewish believers who seek a more integrated Jewish life as followers of Jesus (33). Recognizing this early on will help the reader understand later statements as he separates himself theologically from Hebrew Christianity shaped by “conservative evangelical Protestant models” in favor of Jewish and Catholic sources that are credited for his intellectual and spiritual formation (35).

Evangelicals will have to wrestle with concepts such as Israel-Ecclesiology and Israel-Christology as they wade through highly nuanced philosophical arguments, which attempt to join the Church to “genealogical-Israel” through Christ who is asserted to be both in the Church as much as He is the “inner mystery of the Jewish people” (60). Two examples illustrate this point. In Chapter Four, Israel-Ecclesiology posits a mysteriously inherent “priestly vocation of the Jewish people as a whole” (88) paralleling Catholic sacramental orders of priestly and apostolic ministry through a suggested mystical connection to Messiah. Consequently, Kinzer maintains there is a deficiency of and need for an explicitly Jewish overseer/bishopric structure for exclusive communities of believing Jews. The result, again, is an implicit appeal for a bilateral ecclesiology.

Secondly, Chapter Five suggests that the mystery of the Church’s identity in the Jewish people requires redefining the significance of the sacrament of baptism, especially for Jewish disciples of Jesus. Substituting an Adam-Christology for Israel-Christology, Kinzer interprets Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism as signifying that Jesus is first and foremost representative of and eschatologically in solidarity with Jewish people before being the Savior of the world. Therefore, this chapter’s conclusion seems to inject Kinzer’s idea of ‘unrecognized mediation’ into the theological mix. As a result of Jesus’ proposed solidarity with the Jewish people and as Israel’s corporate representative through baptism unto death, all faithful Jews who anticipate the redemption of Israel are asserted to live in anticipation of the Messiah Jesus even though not yet confessing Jesus as Messiah (104).

Emphasis on ‘mystery’ and ‘hidden meaning’ are metaphysical themes that weave in and out of various theological arguments. For the evangelical mindset this will likely raise concerns, particularly as there is plainly antagonism towards evangelicals for having a “naïve biblicism that denigrates all practices and perspectives which lack explicit scriptural sanction” (184). Going beyond evangelicalism as only one possible framework for interpreting the life and work of Jesus, Kinzer utilizes formal Roman Catholic and Jewish writings to demonstrate inherent linkage of various Catholic ecclesiastical practices with those of Judaism. The result is an implicit call to end lingering supersessionist beliefs by recognizing the Church’s identity as being of Abraham’s stock.

For Kinzer, genealogic-Israel and the Ecclesia (of uncircumcision) continue in an “intense struggle” over superiority issues rather than seeking peaceful unity (176). However, his proposed ‘covenant of peace’ will likely not be embraced by evangelicals while he also espouses “Jews do not receive salvation in Christ in the same way as gentiles” (180), or that the Church needs to recognize there is a “difference between the baptism of a Jew and the baptism of a gentile” (181). Further, in promoting the distinctiveness of religious practices among Jewish followers of Jesus, Gentile believers are mildly denigrated for “transgressing a boundary” that supposedly separates them from Jewish believers (178). Expressing boundary language such as this will only serve as a catalyst for evangelical counter arguments that a wall of separation is being re-erected.

Understandably, Kinzer’s attempt to involve Catholics in Jewish-Christian relations is a stumbling block for both Evangelicals and Messianic Jews. Evangelicals generally have no affection for Roman Catholicism and Messianic Jews are very conscious of how Jewish people have suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church. SHOM is a robust, but highly philosophical work; thus, the readership will most likely be the minority academic and serious scholar rather than the majority general Christian audience. Whilst pervading emphasis on the need for greater philo-Semitic attitudes will reasonably be a point of agreement, Evangelicals will struggle with many of the ontological arguments that raise corporate Israel to a place of mysterious, metaphysical solidarity in and with Jesus without requiring a conscious recognition of Him as Messiah. Consequently, evangelical perspective is marginalized in favor of one that is broadly philosophic. Whilst evidence of evangelical mentoring is in the background, it is overshadowed by a plethora of metaphysical and ontological argumentation that will keep those holding to a “naive biblicism” on their theological toes.

In consideration of The Pneuma Review being the recipient of this review, as a journal of ministry resources and theology for Pentecostal and Charismatic ministries and leaders, it is critical to keep in mind that the purpose has been to assess how well SHOM may or may not be received by a generally evangelical audience.

Reviewed by Brian Brewer

 

Preview Searching Her Own Mystery: https://books.google.com/books?id=xjj6CQAAQBAJ