We the People: Israel and the Catholicity of Jesus

by Tommy Givens

Overview

We the People exposits John Howard Yoder’s account of peoplehood and develops an appreciative revision of it that considers carefully and exegetically the politics of Jesus in relation to the people of Israel. This revision assesses Yoder’s and others’ historical accounts of “the parting of the ways” and articulates the theopolitical stakes of such historiography and accounts of Christian origins. The argument considers these stakes specifically in relation to the modern nation-state’s claims to peoplehood and the observable effects of its exegetical and historical moorings in self-assertion as the new and purified Israel. In considering the centrality of election in an account of the constitution of the people of God as a people and the ethical force of such a constitution, the project undertakes a critical engagement with Karl Barth’s account of God’s election. This engagement includes a theologically sensitive and historically responsible exegesis of key Old and New Testament texts in dialogue with the political theology and exegesis of Carl Schmitt, Jakob Taubes, and N. T. Wright. The argument aims finally to offer a constructive theological account of the people of God 1) as constituted in time not by its self but by the God of Israel and 2) as determined materially and ethically by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451484458
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	337,229
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Tommy Givens is assistant professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. He earned a Th.D. at Duke University, co-directed by Richard Hays and Stanley Hauerwas. He taught theology previously at Centro Teológico Al-Andalus in Spain.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 The Gospel of a People 15

2 The Jewishness of Christian Peoplehood Yoder's Misstep 75

3 "Israel" and the Modern Discourse of Peoplehood 107

4 The Politics of the Election of Israel Help from Karl Barth 177

5 The History of the Election of Israel in the Flesh God's Story of Hope 231

6 The Election of Israel according to the First Gospel 295

7 The Election of Israel according to the First Letter 345

Romans 9-11

Conclusion 413

Selected Bibliography 421

Index 431