“Supersessionism”: The Political Origin of a Theological Neologism

This article proceeds along three primary lines. First, through an examination of the writings Roy and Alice Eckardt Franklin Littell, it demonstrates that categorizing ancient modern Christian thinkers under umbrella “supersessionism” (along with label for its proponent, “supersessionist”) originated not in scholarly works theological history or systematic theology, where concepts now most frequently appear, but political environment burgeoning American support State Israel’s military superiority. Second, this foregrounds way these opposed themselves to Eastern Christians, Arabs, church fathers. Third, shows that, light their approach both “traditional” theology (especially Orthodox) non-Christian Eckardts, other likeminded pioneers Christian-Jewish relations did so much overcome myth they identified rejected as redirected principal elements toward a new cast characters. The concludes by briefly considering common role played sort “gateway” into Jewish-Christian non-Western theologians, hope reshaping historically problematic aspect has tended hinder, rather than facilitate, more frequent Orthodox Arab participation dialogue.