Innovations and Divisions in a New Religious Movement: New Voices within Messianic Judaism

Messianic Judaism came on the scene in the 1970s as a movement of Jews who accepted Christianity in its evangelical form but decided to maintain their Jewish identity. At first, the movement created anxiety among some evangelical Christians, but most evangelical leaders accepted the new group as part of a larger phenomenon of ethnicity and hybridism within the larger evangelical camp. Since the 1970s, hundreds of Messianic congregations came on the scene, differing at times in the amount of Jewish practices they choose to incorporate. While differing in their Charismatic or non-charismatic preferences, as a whole, Messianic Jews conformed to evangelical theology and values, promoting conservative personal morality and politics and choosing clergy who had received their training in recognized evangelical theological seminaries. Many non-Jews joined Messianic congregations and missions to the Jews have come to consider Messianic congregations a useful means of promoting conservative evangelical Christianity among Jews and non-Jews.

In the 2000s, a new generation of Messianic Jewish thinkers, including Mark Kinzer, Gershon Nerel and Tsvi Sadan, came on the scene. While offering different paradigms, they have been unified in demanding more theological and liturgical independence and creating a “post- missionary Messianic Judaism”. While no major splits or open wars have taken place, some wonder if all Messianic Jews belong in the same movement. The paper aims to explore the new trends and show that they have been more evolutionary than revolutionary. It also wishes to point to a spectrum within Messianic Judaism rather than completely opposing camps.