Peter D. Hocken

Israel's Messiah and the People of God

Theology

“This is a significant book. Although it is a collection of articles and addresses, it has a far greater coherence than such collections normally possess. This coherence flows directly from the coherence of Mark Kinzer's life-project--to develop a form of Messianic Judaism that is authentically Jewish, and at the same time truly Messianic in the sense of fully recognizing the centrality of Jesus in God's purpose for Israel and for the world.”

Searching Her Own Mystery

Theology

“Mark Kinzer's new book Searching her own Mystery is his most important work so far. Building on his presentation of a bilateral ecclesiology (Jews and Gentiles united as Jews and Gentiles in one body) in Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism, Kinzer now develops what he calls a 'hermeneutic of dialectical ecclesial continuity' to be applied to all Christian and Messianic Jewish theology. Simply put, Kinzer is saying that the biblical revelation to Israel and through Israel to the Church of Jew and Gentile has come down to us through two quite separate traditions that really belong together. Thus the theological task facing the Christian Church and the Jewish believers in Yeshua requires a profound listening to and sifting of both traditions, the Christian with its variety and the Jewish also in its own variety. Kinzer utilizes this hermeneutic in several key areas - e.g. baptism, eucharist, ministry - delving into the Roman Catholic and the Jewish traditions. An adequate theology today cannot be constructed from one tradition alone, least of all a Christian theology that ignores the Jewish heritage from both before and after Christ. This message is clearly of huge ecumenical relevance.”