Monday, November 11, 2019

Review: The Remnant of Israel: The Theology, History, and Philosophy of the Messianic Jewish Community

The Remnant of Israel: The Theology, History, and Philosophy of the Messianic Jewish Community The Remnant of Israel: The Theology, History, and Philosophy of the Messianic Jewish Community by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting book, but deeply flawed. Some flaws are more relevant than others. My guts & personal theological preferences would have me give only three stars, but for the questions it raised it gets four, even when I disagree with the answers.

The major flaw is that it pressuposes dispensationalism. It would be a oh-so-much better book if it dealt with different escathologies and covenantalisms. Specially fruitful would be explorations of new covenantalism, progressist covenantalism and Baptist 1689 federalism.

A minor irk is its use of Jewish forms of New testament names, such as Messiah instead of Christ. But that is understandable given both the Hebrew origins of the Greek names, and the propensity of Jews to use Hebrew names for religious concepts.

Another irk is the amount of text about legalism, which is relevant perhaps to US fundamentalism but feels like a surpassed issue already.

Perhaps it would need a third edition.

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