Finding Messiah
A Journey into the Jewishness of the Gospel
Jesus was Jewish, and his Jewish identity informed every aspect of his work, words, and witness. He came as the Messiah of Israel, God’s covenant people, and he spoke the language of God’s faithfulness to this people. When we begin to understand Christianity’s indelible relationship to Judaism, key aspects of the Christian faith come alive and the wonder of the gospel becomes clear in new and powerful ways. Rediscover the Jewish Jesus, and in so doing, experience a deeper and richer faith than ever before.
“This is a book I didn’t know I was waiting for. As a Jewish follower of Jesus, Jen has affirmed much of my own experience and bore witness to something meaningful that God is doing. She has challenged me to reconsider things I thought settled and has taught me other things I did not know. She has done all of this in a volume that is brilliantly and cleverly arranged, using the pleasant sharing of her own story as a guide. It is another book that will serve as a marker for the larger conversation about reckoning the Jewishness of the Christian faith and Jewish identity in the world today.”
— Marty Solomon | Creator and Executive Producer of the BEMA Podcast and President of Impact Campus Ministries
“Jen Rosner interweaves her fascinating journey as a Messianic Jew navigating the tensions between Judaism and Christianity with an informative discussion of the Judaism of the earliest believers in Jesus. I heartily recommend her work here. Christians everywhere need to learn more about the Jewishness of the New Testament and the necessity of understanding of Jesus and Paul within their original Hebraic context.”
— Lois Tverberg | Author of Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus
“In Finding Messiah, Jennifer M. Rosner deftly weaves together her fascinating story of becoming a Jewish follower of Jesus with her adept theological investigation into the questions and implications surrounding Messianic Christianity. Rosner’s attempt to bridge the ancient rift between Jewish identity and Christian faith is timely and important. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.”
— Brian Zahnd | Author of When Everything’s on Fire
Healing the Schism
Karl Barth, Franz Rosenzweig, and the New Jewish-Christian Encounter
Healing the Schism maps out the “new Jewish-Christian encounter” from its nascent origins in the work of Karl Barth and Franz Rosenzweig to its current state. The goal in this study is threefold: first, to trace key influences in the theological genesis of Jewish-Christian dialogue; second, to outline dominant features of its present incarnation; and finally, to identify potential future directions. This volume, then, offers a constructive vision of Jewish-Christian encounter that affirms the irrevocable election of Israel and the universal, ecclesially meditated saving mission of Christ.
“Remember the famous exchange between Karl Barth and Franz Rosenzweig on the significance of Judaism for Christian faith, and of Christianity for Jewish faith? Of course not, because that is one of those great theological conversations that never happened — at least until now. In this exciting book, Jennifer M. Rosner orchestrates a meeting of minds between Barth and Rosenzweig, and she does so with reference to a phenomenon both thinkers foreshadow but neither foresaw: the emergence of theologically articulate Messianic Judaism. A creative and deeply probing work.”
— R. Kendall Soulen | Emory University
“How do Jews and Christians understand each other in the wake of the Holocaust, the establishment of the state of Israel, and the rise of Messianic Judaism? What is the relation of Jewish practice to Christian claims that the Jewish messiah has come? No theologian can answer these questions without careful attention to Barth, Rosenzweig, Kinzer and — now — Jennifer M. Rosner.”
— Gerald R. McDermott | Beeson Divinity School
“This is the finest piece of theological work yet to emerge from the Messianic Jewish movement. Reflecting on the relationship between the Jewish people and the church in critical dialogue with Barth, Rosenzweig, Kinzer, and many others, Rosner addresses in a nuanced and sensitive way questions that go to the heart of both Jewish and Christian faith. More than that: she advances to a new level of clarity and rigor the difficult but needed theological conversation on the problems and promise of Messianic Judaism.”
— Bruce D. Marshall | Southern Methodist University
At the Foot of the Mountain: Two Views on Torah and the Spirit
Co-authored by Jen Rosner and Rabbi Joshua Lessard
This book records the conversation of two thinkers who are deeply invested in the Messianic Jewish movement yet at variance with the vision that should propel the movement forward. At issue is the place and definition of Torah for a movement of Jews and Gentiles that seeks to maintain a distinctively Jewish character while not diminishing the centrality of Yeshua or the blessings that come from a Messianic faith. Rabbi Lessard defends the view of freedom to be led by the Holy Spirit in one’s approach to Torah and Jewish living, and Dr. Rosner responds that Torah observance must be rooted in the ongoing tradition of rabbinic Judaism for the sake of Jewish identity and covenant fidelity.
“What a delightful and informative read, and what an excellent example of respectful dialogue in the midst of substantial differences. Here you have two fine representatives of their respective positions, each articulate, each passionate, and each deeply committed to the Messianic Jewish vision. My own convictions were sharpened as I read, as I trust yours will be as well.”
— Dr. Michael L. Brown | President of FIRE School of Ministry, author of Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus
“This is a lively, intelligent, and provocative dialogue between two articulate members of the Messianic Jewish community, debating a topic central to Messianic Jewish identity. Key issues are clarified in their exchange. Even more significant is the way they model irenic disagreement (machloket) for the sake of Heaven. Highly recommended.”
— Rabbi Mark S. Kinzer | President Emeritus of Messianic Jewish Theological Institute
“Jennifer and Joshua offer us a window into a respectful, intelligent, and engaging exchange regarding a very important matter in Messianic Judaism. The relationship between the Torah and the Spirit is one that needs more exploration and conversation among the disciples of Yeshua. This book serves to move the dialog forward and will hopefully inspire additional efforts to develop more refined viewpoints on this topic.”
— Boaz Michael | Founder and Director of First Fruits of Zion
Stones the Builders Rejected
The Jewish Jesus, His Jewish Disciples, and the Culmination of History
Reflecting the widened scope of Mark Kinzer's work in recent years, this collection of essays addresses not only the Messianic Jewish movement but also the reality of Jews within historic Christian churches. Structured around the themes of Christology (conceived of as Messianology), ecclesiology (understood as Israelology), and eschatology (imagined as Zionology), Kinzer demonstrates how the presence of Jewish disciples of Jesus concretizes these theological abstractions in the form of Jewish flesh and blood, summoning Jews and Christians to rethink their relationship to one another in ways that express their essential mutual dependence.
“Mark Kinzer's essays in this collection show how both Jews who follow Jesus and gentiles who follow a Jewish messiah need to rethink together doctrines of Christ, church, and eschatology. This book continues Kinzer's contribution to biblical, doctrinal, and ecumenical theology. It is challenging, prophetic, and required reading.”
— Gavin D’Costa, visiting professor of interreligious dialogue, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas
“It is providential that the reunification of Jerusalem after two thousand years came in the same decade as the birth of a new movement of messianic Judaism, which is the necessary link between two expressions of the Messiah's Body--his gentile followers in the church and his Jewish followers in Israel. This book is essential for understanding the most exciting new chapter in the history of redemption through the mind of this most gifted thinker.”
— Gerald R. McDermott, author of A New History of Redemption: The Work of Jesus the Messiah through the Millennia
“In this collection of very thoughtful essays, Mark Kinzer advances his role as the leading theologian and biblical scholar reflecting on the living reality of Messianic Judaism/Jewish Christianity. Kinzer reminds of what was lost when the 'church of the circumcised' disappeared in early Christian history and celebrates the many positive implications of its reemergence. I highly recommend this profound contribution.”
— David P. Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics, Mercer University
Israel’s Messiah and the People of God
A Vision for Messianic Jewish Covenant Fidelity
With an introductory essay by editor Jennifer M. Rosner, Israel’s Messiah and the People of God presents a rich and diverse selection of essays by theologian Mark Kinzer, whose work constitutes a pioneering step in Messianic Jewish theology. Including several pieces never before published, this collection illuminates Kinzer’s thought on topics such as Oral Torah, Jewish prayer, eschatology, soteriology, and Messianic Jewish-Catholic dialogue. This volume offers the reader numerous portals into the vision of Messianic Judaism offered in Kinzer’s Postmissionary Messianic Judaism (2005).
“This book is a welcome successor to Mark Kinzer’s 2005 groundbreaking work, Postmissionary Messianic Judaism. Not only does it provide clarifications on a number of theological issues raised in the many exchanges that followed that book’s publication, but the argument is also strengthened and deepened by extensive exegetical analyses. This is the kind of theological inquiry that both the Jewish Roots movement and the Messianic Jewish movement are so greatly in need of. Jennifer Rosner’s collaboration in this project is a promising sign that a new generation of Messianic Jewish scholars may be ready to accept the challenge.”
— Rev. Isaac Rottenberg | First Chairperson of the National Council of Churches Office on Christian-Jewish Relations, Former Executive Director of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel
“This is a significant book. Although it is a collection of articles and addresses, it has a far greater coherence than such collections normally possess. This coherence flows directly from the coherence of Mark Kinzer’s life-project — to develop a form of Messianic Judaism that is authentically Jewish, and at the same time truly Messianic in the sense of fully recognizing the centrality of Jesus in God’s purpose for Israel and for the world. The author is a meticulous exegete and a systematic thinker familiar with the traditions of Judaism and of Christianity. This collection makes an invaluable contribution to the challenges presented by the Messianic Jewish movement and to the formation of a coherent Messianic Jewish theology.”
— Monsignor Peter Hocken | Member of International Doctrinal Commission for Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Former Executive Secretary of the Society for Pentecostal Studies in USA
“Whether one welcomes the Messianic Jewish movement wholeheartedly, with reservations, or not at all, the increasing importance of its voice in contemporary theological discussion is certain. This collection of essays by Mark Kinzer demonstrates again why the issues raised by Messianic Judaism are so fundamental in nature, and why Kinzer himself is widely regarded as the movement’s foremost theologian.”
— R. Kendall Soulen | Professor of Systematic Theology, Emory University, author of The God of Israel and Christian Theology
Covenant and the People of God
Essays in Honor of Mark S. Kinzer
Covenant and the People of God gathers twenty-four essays from friends and colleagues of Messianic Jewish theologian and New Testament scholar Mark S. Kinzer, in honor of his seventieth birthday. The essays are organized around two central themes that have animated Kinzer’s work: the nature of the covenant and what it means to be the people of God. Contributors include: Gabriele Boccaccini, Douglas A. Campbell, Holly Taylor Coolman, Gavin D’Costa, Jean-Miguel Garrigues, Douglas Harink, Richard Harvey, Vered Hillel, Jonathan Kaplan, Daniel Keating, Amy-Jill Levine, Antoine Lévy, Gerald McDermott, Michael C. Mulder, David M. Neuhaus, Isaac W. Oliver, Ephraim Radner, Jennifer M. Rosner, David J. Rudolph, Thomas Schumacher, Faydra L. Shapiro, R. Kendall Soulen, Lee B. Spitzer, and Etienne Vetö.
“This book is a welcome successor to Mark Kinzer’s 2005 groundbreaking work, Postmissionary Messianic Judaism. Not only does it provide clarifications on a number of theological issues raised in the many exchanges that followed that book’s publication, but the argument is also strengthened and deepened by extensive exegetical analyses. This is the kind of theological inquiry that both the Jewish Roots movement and the Messianic Jewish movement are so greatly in need of. Jennifer Rosner’s collaboration in this project is a promising sign that a new generation of Messianic Jewish scholars may be ready to accept the challenge.”
— Rev. Isaac Rottenberg | First Chairperson of the National Council of Churches Office on Christian-Jewish Relations, Former Executive Director of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel
“This is a significant book. Although it is a collection of articles and addresses, it has a far greater coherence than such collections normally possess. This coherence flows directly from the coherence of Mark Kinzer’s life-project — to develop a form of Messianic Judaism that is authentically Jewish, and at the same time truly Messianic in the sense of fully recognizing the centrality of Jesus in God’s purpose for Israel and for the world. The author is a meticulous exegete and a systematic thinker familiar with the traditions of Judaism and of Christianity. This collection makes an invaluable contribution to the challenges presented by the Messianic Jewish movement and to the formation of a coherent Messianic Jewish theology.”
— Monsignor Peter Hocken | Member of International Doctrinal Commission for Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Former Executive Secretary of the Society for Pentecostal Studies in USA
“Whether one welcomes the Messianic Jewish movement wholeheartedly, with reservations, or not at all, the increasing importance of its voice in contemporary theological discussion is certain. This collection of essays by Mark Kinzer demonstrates again why the issues raised by Messianic Judaism are so fundamental in nature, and why Kinzer himself is widely regarded as the movement’s foremost theologian.”
— R. Kendall Soulen | Professor of Systematic Theology, Emory University, author of The God of Israel and Christian Theology
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