Spiritual Reflection, April 2024

A Certain Type

My own Anglican tradition has long had a fondness for “natural typology”: the things of the created world point to, or are “types” of, the realities of our divine vocation. In the nineteenth century, theologians like John Keble and John Henry Newman made extensive use of such natural typology. Newman speaks of the flowers and the birds as the best “type” of the Christian, the one pointing to the Christian’s happy receipt of God’s gifts, the other to the Christian’s life as a lonely dependent upon divine grace. Newman was basing this on Scripture, of course: the lilies of the field and the sparrow who are clothed and fed by God (cf. Mt. 7). The whole world of nature is a sign that embodies biblical revelation.

The most traditional “type” applied to the Christian, and to the church, however, has been Israel. In this sense, Israel embodies — in her history, experience, and faith — all that the people of the Messiah (the Christ), must be and will be. Early church writers understood this, and followed Paul in tracing out the connections (e.g. 1 Cor. 10). But the Christian Church soon limited the “typical” role of Israel for the church to its negative aspects – judgment and unbelief – and lost sight of the positive identity that Israel and church shared. Few encouraged Christians to “consider Israel, how God clothes and feeds her,” and instead focused on “see how God has punished Israel.” Not all followed this negative line, of course, and prominent theologians like Calvin mostly opposed it. But Israel as the “negative type” persisted in the Christian imagination. Today, we see its dark shadows reassert themselves once again.

Jewish disciples of Jesus may have a special role to play in restoring a proper and positive Israel typology. The relationship of Jewish Israel to the church is a contested one, to be sure, and typology is not the only way to conceive of it. Still, the divinely created linkage of Israel and church is at least a minimal basis upon which to explore this fundamental question faithfully. Jewish disciples of Jesus may themselves be an embodiment of this fundamental linkage. “Consider the Israelite who follows Yeshua!” Consider! Let us not shy away from commending the consideration of our being and the grace it represents.

Ephraim Radner