Last night in class, we read an article on the origins of Christianity and anti-semitism. The article was mostly an historical overview of theories. None of the people surveyed denied the connection of self-proclaiming Christians and anti-semitic persons. Indeed, to do so would be ridiculous. Perhaps Nazis were not Christian, but many of them thought themselves to be. The legal anti-semitism in our country's earliest stages was also made by self-proclaimed Christians. Who are we to judge?

The article represented a few different positions on the origins of anti-semitism. One said anti-semitism came out of a medieval Christian anti-Judaism (anti-Judaism switched over to anti-semitism sometime when race theory came into being). Anti-Judaism came about from medieval Christians and is a remnant of an outdated worldview. In this sense, Christianity--authentic Christianity--is not anti-semitic.

Another position said many of the New Testament books proffer anti-Judaism/semitism. Although it made it into our canon, anti-semitism is not really authentic Christianity, because Jesus was not anti-semitic, neither was the first Church.

A third position suggested that Christianity is inherently anti-semtiic. Jesus was against what became Rabbinic Judaism and the concept of resurrection forces Christians to think Judaism is old, decrepit, and wrong (supersessionism & triumphalism). Judaism died when it gave birth to Christianity.

None of these options are historically possible, in my opinion. Jesus was not against what became Rabbinic Judaism, because not one thing but many things became Rabbinic Judaism years and years and years later. Similarly, Christianity was years and years and years in the development. There was no Judaism and no Christians to be against (a nonexistent) Judaism for around 100 years after the death of Jesus. If there was a Judaism, people would have been against it years and years and years before the birth of Jesus. The Egyptians weren't to keen on the Hebrews. Neither were the Syrians, Assyrians, Edomites, Philistines, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans. Anti-semitism is the product of alterity and racism found in various times and cultures. Unfortunately, it took most Christianities a long time to see racism and understand how wrong it is.

During this travel back in time, searching for the beginnings of anti-semitism, I thought more about Christian origins than I thought about hatred. I wondered why, on the one hand, the first two positions (Christian positions, by the way) were protecting something they called "authentic Christianity" and, on the other hand, the third position attacked something called "authentic Christianity." Keely rightly asked last night, "what is authentic Christianity?"

It seems each person was going into the past to find authentic Christianity. The first group didn't reach back too far. They sought a pre-medieval Christianity. The early Church mothers and fathers and such.

Rosemary Radford Reuther (of the second opinion) associated authentic Christianity with Jesus. Again, her historicity is a bit amiss here. Jesus was an Israelite from the day he was born until the day he died ... and then was resurrected and still is an Israelite today. Jesus is not authentic Christianity.

He is Christ and is love;
is authentic humanity:
humanity fully inhabited by God.

Christianity should try to be authentically human, which is why the Kingdom of God is not just about the next life, but also and especially, about this life. And it is in the Kingdom where we find authentic Christianity. Therefore, we cannot find it in the past, for although the Kingdom of God is here, it is not fully here. We can learn great things from Jesus and Acts and Paul. Indeed, we should look to them and the texts associated with them so we can learn great things about the Kingdom and how we should act.

But things change. We are presented with situations in which Jesus never found himself. The church in Acts had some issues incorporating Gentiles. Paul, too, was a product of his culture. Furthermore, our God is an innovative, creative God. Perhaps the Spirit is moving amongst us in ways the Spirit never moved before.

But they all had some things right. Some great things right. A lot of major things right. We need to look to them and root ourselves in them, but never hinder ourselves by them, never try to be them and only them. Instead, we need to imitate them in their prolepsis. Prolepsis is "the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does so or did so, as in 'he was a dead man when he entered'" (American English Dictionaries ... the Mac widget). They were the Kingdom before the Kingdom becomes full (awkward verb tenses are purposeful). And before them, Israel proleptically represented the Kingdom. Yes, the Old Testament did more than just point to Jesus. In fact, like Jesus, it pointed to God and humanity's union with God in the future kingdom.

Like those before us, we need to be the Kingdom of God until it is fully here and God freely initiates its creative continuance. When we look for authentic Christianity, we need to borrow from the past and those around us in the present. Then, together we can all proleptically create authentic Christianity.

Authentic Christianity does not exist. It is something we aim to become.

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See Jay McDaniel's With Roots and Wings for the idea of rooting in the past, but looking to the future & Ted Peters' God: The World's Future for the idea of a proleptic Christianity.