Tradition

Supersessionism

Overview

Supersessionism, also called fulfillment theology by its proponents and replacement theology by its detractors, is the Christian doctrine that the Christian Church has superseded the Jewish people, assuming their role as God's covenanted people, thus asserting that the New Covenant through Jesus has superseded or replaced the Mosaic covenant. Supersessionists hold that the universal Church has become God's "New Israel" and thus Christians are the people of God, not Jews.

Often claimed by later Christians to have originated with Paul the Apostle in the New Testament, supersessionism has been a core tenet of many Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran churches for most of their history. Many early Church Fathers, including Justin Martyr and Augustine of Hippo, were supersessionists.

Most historic Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and historic Reformed churches and Methodist churches, hold that the Old Covenant has three components: ceremonial, moral, and civil (cf. covenant theology). They teach that while the ceremonial and civil (judicial) laws have been fulfilled, the moral law of the Ten Commandments continues to bind Christians. Since the 19th century, certain Christian communities, such as the Plymouth Brethren, have espoused dispensationalist theology as opposed to supersessionism and covenant theology. Additionally, as part of Christian–Jewish reconciliation, the Roman Catholic Church has placed increased emphasis on the shared history of the Christian and modern Jewish religions.

Rabbinic Judaism rejects supersessionism as offensive to Jewish history. Islam teaches that it is the final and most authentic expression of Abrahamic monotheism, superseding both Judaism and Christianity.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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And this custom, coming, I suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters, or in the Councils of their successors),--this most wholesome custom, I say, according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his…
of Hippo Augustine, Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
States what Supersessionism is; the author is tied to Supersessionism in the knowledge graph.
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We, on the other hand, cannot express either of these ideas by one word. This worship, then, which in Greek is called λατρεία, and in Latin "servitus" [service], but the service due to God only; this worship, which in Greek is called θρησκεία, and in Latin "religio," but the religion by which we are bound to God only; this worship, which they call θεοσέβεια, but which we cannot express in one word, but call it the…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
States what Supersessionism is; the author is tied to Supersessionism in the knowledge graph.
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This last expression denotes that which in the Gospels is called denying ourselves and taking up the cross (Matt. xvi. 24, 25; Mark viii. 34, 35; Luke ix. 23, 24, xiv. 26, 27, 33).
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Supersessionism is.
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Thomism.

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