Jerusalem Crucified, Jerusalem Risen

The good news (euangelion) of the crucified and risen Messiah was proclaimed first to Jews in Jerusalem, and then to Jews throughout the land of Israel. In Jerusalem Crucified, Jerusalem Risen, Mark Kinzer argues that this initial audience and geographical setting of the euangelion is integral to the eschatological content of the message itself. While the good news is universal in concern and cosmic in scope, it never loses its particular connection to the Jewish people, the city of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel. The crucified Messiah participates in the future exilic suffering of his people, and by his resurrection offers a pledge of Jerusalem's coming redemption.

Basing his argument on a reading of the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Luke, Kinzer proposes that the biblical message requires its interpreters to reflect theologically on the events of post-biblical history. In this context he considers the early emergence of Rabbinic Judaism and the much later phenomenon of Zionism, offering a theological perspective on these historical developments that is biblically rooted, attentive to both Jewish and Christian tradition, and minimalist in the theological constraints it imposes on the just resolution of political conflict in the Middle East.

""Jerusalem Crucified, Jerusalem Risen is a careful but exciting reading of the NT through the lens of Luke-Acts . . . Kinzer shows that it is the principal link between the gospels and the letters of the NT, and that it unveils the Jewish-Gentile admixture of the early church in ways that answer fundamental questions about Christology, eschatology, ecclesiology, ethics, and missiology. Readers of this book will discover ways of seeing Jesus and the early church that will set all of Christian theology in a new light.""
--Gerald R. McDermott, Anglican Chair of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School

""Kinzer's work is ground breaking. He focuses especially on Luke and Acts to show that Jerusalem then, now, and in the future is central to the hope of the Jewish messiah, Jesus--and thus to his ecclesial body, both Jew and gentile. The good news is geographical. Kinzer develops a new form of Christ-centred Zionism, eschewing millenarianism, and bloody battle scenarios. His work is changing and challenging theological maps for Jewish and gentile Christians.""
--Gavin D'Costa, University of Bristol

""This is a fascinating book. Kinzer makes the case that Israel is so central to the gospel message that removing her from it, and its hope, seriously dilutes what the gospel is about. With many fresh takes on passages, he opens up this issue for renewed discussion. It is a conversation well worth having.""
--Darrell Bock, Dallas Theological Seminary

Mark S. Kinzer is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Zera Avraham in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and President Emeritus of Messianic Jewish Theological Institute. He is the author of Postmissionary Messianic Judaism (2005), Israel's Messiah and the People of God (2011), and ...