Is There Such a Thing As Judeo-Christianity?
A Study of Evangelical Views with Francis Schaeffer, Carl Henry, and Os Guinness.
In the past few years, an unexpected revival has taken place. Nearly a century after Auschwitz, antisemitism has returned. While this is somewhat expected in part of culture increasingly divorced from the Christian consensus, it has been surprising and disheartening to see it in Christian circles. Perhaps most shocking is seeing it in conversations among evangelicals, arguably the segment of Christianity most often accused of an exaggerated philosemitism.
Partly as a result of increased tensions in the Middle East, partly as a result of historical distance form Dispensationalism, partly a consequence a skepticism towards received knowledge and a propensity towards conspiratorial thinking, many evangelicals have begun to question the relationship between Judaism, the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and Christianity.
To gain an insight into this conversation, this paper will examine the way evangelical Christians made use of the term Judeo-Christianity. Rather than focusing on the usual suspects in eschatologically-focused groups and individuals, this paper will study the works of Francis Schaeffer, Carl Henry, and Os Guinness. These are three prominent thinkers who often used the term or the concept of Judeo-Christianity, not as a description of a syncretistic faith, but yet as a concrete and constructive idea within evangelicalism.