Review by Choice Review
At issue in this collection is the place of the State of Israel within Christian theology, specifically, the question of whether a continuing Jewish claim to the "promised land" can be supported in Scripture, New Testament as well as Old. Challenging much of contemporary Christian thought, 12 authorities on Christian theology and history argue that Scripture does support such a claim. The advent of the Messiah did not mark an end to the covenant through which God granted the Jews the land of Israel. Rather, that covenant and the right to the so-called promised land remain and, indeed, are preserved at the heart of the Christian message. This means that rather than being transitional--the offspring of premillennial dispensationalism--the people of Israel retain their covenanted relationship with God and the divinely ordained connection to the land of Israel that lies at the heart of that covenant. This idea, carefully and convincingly set out here, has broad implications. In rethinking their sometimes fraught attitude toward the modern State of Israel, Christians must reconsider their relationship to the people of Israel, to the Bible, and to Scripture's place in the shaping of Christian theology. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Alan J. Avery-Peck, College of the Holy Cross
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
