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A Renewed Christian Sabbath, After Supersessionism and After Christendom

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A Renewed Christian Sabbath, After Supersessionism and After Christendom Southern Methodist University SMU Scholar Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations Religious Studies Spring 5-15-2021 A Renewed Christian Sabbath, After Supersessionism and After Christendom Abigail Woolley Cutter Southern Methodist University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds Part of the Christianity Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Cutter, Abigail Woolley, "A Renewed Christian Sabbath, After Supersessionism and After Christendom" (2021). Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations. 29. https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds/29 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Religious Studies at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. A RENEWED CHRISTIAN SABBATH, AFTER SUPERSESSIONISM AND AFTER CHRISTENDOM Approved by: ________________________________________ Prof. D. Stephen Long Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics ________________________________________ Prof. Nathan G. Jennings J. Milton Richardson Associate Professor of Liturgics and Anglican Studies, Seminary of the Southwest ________________________________________ Prof. Bruce D. Marshall Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine ________________________________________ Prof. Rebekah Miles Professor of Ethics and Practical Theology A RENEWED CHRISTIAN SABBATH, AFTER SUPERSESSIONISM AND AFTER CHRISTENDOM A dissertation presented to the graduate faculty of Dedman College Southern Methodist University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies with a specialization in Christian Ethics by Abigail Woolley Cutter B.A., Biblical and Theological Studies, Wheaton College Master of Christian Studies, Regent College May 15, 2021 Copyright (2021) Abigail Woolley Cutter All Rights Reserved Cutter, Abigail Woolley B.A., Biblical and Theological Studies, Wheaton College Master of Christian Studies, Regent College A Renewed Christian Sabbath, After Christendom and After Supersessionism Advisor: Professor D. Stephen Long Doctor of Philosophy awarded May 15, 2021 Dissertation completed March 22, 2021 This project works toward a contemporary understanding of what the Sabbath commandment can mean for Christians, in light of both the post-supersessionist developments in Christian theology since the Holocaust and a declining (Protestant) Christian hegemony in the United States. It claims that a Christian theology of Sabbath must be developed through a serious engagement with the theology of Jewish-Christian relations. It proposes the Sabbath framework as a model for cultural engagement reminiscent of the “synthesis” type laid out in H. R. Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, but less susceptible to the alleged pitfalls of that type. The approach to a Christian theology of Israel that is judged to be most adequate (both for the project of recovering a Christian Sabbath and for the demands of Christian orthodoxy) is neither supersessionism nor a “two covenant” model, but a “fulfillment” model, such as that laid out recently by Jean-Miguel Garrigues. Principles are drawn from Garrigues’s account of Israel and the Church that are then applied to a Christian understanding of the Sabbath. These principles are also applied to a reading of Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel’s The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, with the goal of respecting the text’s Jewish integrity while allowing it to be instructive for Christians. A result of this reading of Heschel is the observation that the Sabbath iv provides a “middle way” between single-minded attention to eternity and succumbing to the totalizing demands of “technical civilization.” This “middle way” understanding of the Sabbath is developed as an approach to a theology of culture in dialogue with H. Richard Niebuhr, Peter Berger, and Charles Taylor. The discussion particularly draws on Taylor’s observation that a society or community that can hold “tensions in equilibrium” can not only hold together disparate forces within society but is also better equipped to sustain a “social imaginary” that includes the transcendent. The Sabbath is considered through the lens of metaphysical realism, linking practical observance with spiritual meanings, which would also provide a fuller context for the economic ethics (developed elsewhere) to which the Sabbath points. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 The Question ............................................................................................................................ 1 The State of the Discourse ........................................................................................................ 4 Method and Structure ............................................................................................................. 10 Audience and Impact .............................................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER ONE: THE MEANING OF THE SABBATH ......................................................... 16 Hebrew Origins ...................................................................................................................... 17 Christians and the Sabbath ..................................................................................................... 31 The Meaning of the Sabbath ................................................................................................... 51 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER TWO: ISRAEL, THE CHURCH, AND THE SABBATH ....................................... 60 The Sabbath as a Jewish Distinctive ....................................................................................... 61 Israel and the Church.............................................................................................................. 68 Christians as Sabbath Keepers ................................................................................................ 81 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 92 CHAPTER THREE: IS CEASING WORK ACTUALLY WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS? ........ 95 Keeping Torah: Divine Grace or Human Merit? ..................................................................... 97 Faith Alone or Faith and Works? .......................................................................................... 111 Practices and Piety ............................................................................................................... 121 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 150 vi CHAPTER FOUR: THE SABBATH AS A THEOLOGY OF CULTURE .............................. 153 Culture ................................................................................................................................. 156 The Problem with Culture .................................................................................................... 163 Imagining Possibilities: H. R. Niebuhr ................................................................................. 168 Tensions in Equilibrium: Charles Taylor .............................................................................. 180 Equilibrium and Synthesis .................................................................................................... 195 The Sabbath Equilibrium ...................................................................................................... 200 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 207 CHAPTER FIVE: A CHRISTIAN READING OF HESCHEL’S THE SABBATH ................... 212 Seven Themes in Heschel’s The Sabbath .............................................................................. 215 Responding to Heschel’s Themes with Christian Eyes .......................................................... 239 Assessment .......................................................................................................................... 264 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 267 Tasks Accomplished ............................................................................................................ 267 Remaining Questions ........................................................................................................... 270 Further Work........................................................................................................................ 280 In Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 281 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 283 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sincere
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