The Torah, the Covenant, and Christian Supersessionism: A Christological Proposal

In recent decades, prominent Christian theologians have described Jesus as the “Torah in person.” This article considers whether such a Torah-in-person Christology falls into a kind of Christian supersessionism (i.e., the suggestion that Christianity sits atop or even takes the place of Judaism). To answer this question, I consider David Novak’s distinction between hard and soft varieties of supersessionism, suggesting that there might be an additional “appropriative” variety. Appropriative supersessionism, exemplified by so-called “Christian Seders,” occurs when Christians problematically lay claim to central elements of the rabbinic tradition. Although Torah-in-person Christology eschews hard supersessionism and underlines the Jewishness of Jesus, it arguably operates in an appropriative supersessionist way. I propose that a covenant Christology features the same advantages that motivate the Torah-in-person category while also circumventing its problematic appropriative aspect.