From the editor – Issue 40

  Community, by its very nature, lives in the past, present, and future. Community rests upon an extended narrative that retells its reason for being and the roots of its character. It lives in the present shared life of its members and neighbors. And it prepares to meet the future with integrity and vigor. In…

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Crisis, Reaction, and Hope: Jewish Adaptations to Past Adversity

  Introduction As we contemplate a post-Covid-19 world, we must never forget that the Jewish people are survivors, with a history of adapting to change in reaction to the most extreme life-threatening circumstances. No matter how often the Jewish people are perched on the brink of destruction, their spirit and calling have ensured their continued existence.1…

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Messianic Jewish Synagogues: Coping with Covid

  Introduction In the first of our three-part Kesher series on Tomorrow Together, Rabbi Elliot Klayman explored how the Jewish community historically has dealt with world-shaking traumatic situations that directly affected the Jewish world. In this second part of our three-part series we will survey how the modern Messianic Jewish congregational movement has adapted to…

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Toward a Messianic Jewish Doctrine of the Atonement

Atonement is the Christian doctrine of reconciliation with God through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It lies at the very heart of Christian faith. And yet, surprisingly, doctrinal orthodoxy has never prescribed a particular or exclusive way of answering the question of how, exactly, that state of “at-one-ment” with God—of being…

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Reading Jacques Maritain in the Twenty-First Century: Personalism, Aliyah, and the Political Organization of the World

Here we are faced with a major problem which has long tormented this old philosopher: the problem—I will not say of a World Government, for this term tends to be too equivocal—I prefer to say a supranational political authority consisting, not of a world-wide empire or a world super-State, but of a real political organization…

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The Holy Spirit before Christianity, by John R. Levison

Reviewed by Henri Louis Goulet This is arguably the most important and insightful monograph ever written on the origins of what should rightfully be called “ruachology.”1 The result of over two decades of research, its historically, hermeneutically, and exegetically sound approach reveals “unprecedented conceptions of the spirit (i.e., ‘ruach’) that emerged in the crises of…

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The Nations in the Divine Economy: Paul’s Covenantal Hermeneutics and Participation in Christ by William S. Campbell

  Reviewed by Joseph Culbertson In a book about Paul’s vision for how the nations would relate to God’s covenant with Israel, William S. Campbell begins by sketching the history of the successors to Paul’s communities of gentile Christ-followers. Campbell asserts that it was Paul’s intention to cultivate a healthy identity for these congregations, in…

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