The deepening theological reflection on the Church’s relationship with the Jewish people — especially in light of Nostra Aetate and subsequent magisterial documents — has now reached a stage that calls for new voices who can bridge traditional boundaries and point toward a shared eschatological horizon. Among the most significant thinkers in this emerging discourse are Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Messianic Jewish theologian Rabbi Mark Kinzer, and Dominican philosopher-theologian Fr. Antoine Lévy, O.P., whose groundbreaking book The Jewish Church proposes a provocative, yet deeply faithful, vision of ecclesial identity that includes Israel’s ongoing election.
Each of these thinkers — while differing in background, vocation, and emphasis — offers profound insight into the mystery of Jewish-Christian identity, especially as it relates to the place of Torah-observant Jews within the Body of Christ. This essay will explore how their work converges, enriches, and challenges the Church to take the next theological and pastoral steps in embracing the Jewish dimension of her own identity, and the role of Torah-observant Hebrew Catholics within that journey.
Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger: The Jewish Heart of the Church
Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger (1926–2007), born Aaron Lustiger to Polish Jewish immigrants, famously declared: “I was born Jewish and I remain Jewish.”¹ His episcopate and cardinalate were profoundly marked by his conviction that Jewish identity and Catholic faith are not mutually exclusive, but are instead mysteriously integrated in Christ, who himself remains the eternal Jew.
For Lustiger, the election of Israel was not annulled by the coming of Christ but rather revealed in its fullness. In his view, Jesus’ Jewish identity is not simply historical but ontological, shaping the very structure of the Church. He envisioned the Church as grafted onto Israel, not replacing her but entering into her story. In this vision, the Jewish believer in Jesus stands as a sign — often misunderstood, often suffering — of the unity that God wills between the covenants.
Lustiger’s life and theology help legitimize the identity of Hebrew Catholics as both fully Jewish and fully Christian. His personal witness provides a lived model of integration: not assimilation, not hybridization, but sacrificial fidelity to both covenants. His legacy encourages Hebrew Catholics to see themselves not on the periphery of the Church, but at her very eschatological center, bearing the tension between “already” and “not yet.”
Rabbi Mark Kinzer: Messianic Judaism and the Post-Supersessionist Church
Messianic Rabbi Mark Kinzer, in works such as Postmissionary Messianic Judaism and Israel’s Messiah and the People of God, articulates a powerful theological vision in which Messianic Jews are called to remain faithful to the Torah within the life of Yeshua the Messiah. Kinzer’s core argument is that the New Testament does not abolish Jewish Torah observance for Jews, but rather presumes its continuation — transfigured in light of the Messiah’s coming.
Kinzer proposes that Jewish disciples of Jesus maintain covenantal responsibility to the Torah, not as a way of justification, but as a mark of identity and fidelity to God’s enduring covenant with Israel. He sees the Church and Israel not as two separate entities, but as intersecting, overlapping realities— one centered in Messiah, the other in the historical continuity of Jewish peoplehood.
His concept of a bilateral ecclesiology— the idea that the Church includes both Gentiles and Jews in distinct, covenantally valid ways — has significant implications for Hebrew Catholics. It suggests that Jewish life in Christ should not be absorbed into Gentile expressions of Christianity, but honored as a parallel and necessary expression of the one ecclesial Body.
Kinzer’s theology supports the idea that Hebrew Catholics should not abandon Torah observance, but rather live it in the Spirit, as part of the Church’s deeper recognition of its own Jewish roots.
Fr. Antoine Lévy: The Jewish Church as Theological Provocation
Fr. Antoine Lévy, O.P., in his provocative book The Jewish Church, offers a striking philosophical and theological exploration of Jewish presence within the Church. His thesis is bold: the Church is not merely a new creation born from the ashes of Israel, but in some mysterious sense is Israel herself transformed in the Paschal Mystery.
Lévy challenges the Church to consider that the Jewish people, even in their non-confession of Christ, remain an integral part of the ecclesial mystery, since they remain in covenant with God and continue to carry Israel’s vocation. This opens the possibility that Jewish believers in Christ form a kind of ‘inner circle’—a sacramental presence of Israel within the Church that is not reducible to cultural diversity or private devotion.
His book calls for the Church to move beyond “gentilized” ecclesiology and to recover the Jewish substratum of Christian identity, not merely as a past historical fact but as a present and living mode of ecclesial being. Lévy's thought invites Catholic theology to reflect seriously on the possibility of a distinct, Jewish mode of ecclesial life, rooted in Torah observance, liturgy, and communal memory, within the one Catholic Church.
For Torah-observant Hebrew Catholics, Lévy’s vision opens the door to an ecclesiology in which their fidelity to Jewish tradition is not merely tolerated but sacramentally significant— a theological necessity for the Church’s own self-understanding.
The Convergence: A Prophetic Triad
Lustiger, Kinzer, and Lévy — each from different traditions and vocations—converge in affirming several crucial insights:
The Jewish identity of Jesus and the ongoing vocation of Israel are central to the Church’s identity and eschatological mission.
Jewish believers in Jesus must retain their fidelity to the Torah, not out of legalism, but as a covenantal response to God’s enduring promises.
The Church must embrace a non-supersessionist ecclesiology in which Israel is not absorbed but welcomed, not replaced but recognized.
The presence of Torah-observant Jews within the Church is both a sign and sacrament of God’s fidelity to his covenant.
Together, their voices call the Church to develop structures, theology, and pastoral practices that can nurture the vocation of Hebrew Catholics. This may take the form of liturgical rites, canonical frameworks, or educational institutions that uphold and deepen Jewish Catholic identity.
Conclusion: From Peripheral to PropheticThe insights of Lustiger, Kinzer, and Lévy illuminate a pathway forward where Hebrew Catholics are no longer seen as outliers but as bearers of a prophetic vocation — a living link between the Church’s Jewish beginnings and her eschatological fulfillment. Their writings offer the theological scaffolding for a Church that can truly say, in the words of Pope Francis, that “with [the Jewish people], we believe in the one God who acts in history.”²
As the Church continues to reflect on the mystery of Israel, the integration of Torah-faithful Jewish disciples of Jesus will be a touchstone for theological renewal. They are not an obstacle to unity, but a sign of it. They are not a remnant of the past, but a herald of the age to come.
FootnotesLustiger, Jean-Marie. The Promise. (Eerdmans, 2007), p. 2.
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, §247.
Kinzer, Mark S. Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People. (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2005).
Kinzer, Mark S. Israel’s Messiah and the People of God. (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011).
Lévy, Antoine. The Jewish Church: A Catholic Approach to Messianic Judaism. (Cascade Books, 2022).
See also Kinzer’s reflections on bilateral ecclesiology in dialogue with Catholicism in Searching Her Own Mystery (Eugene: Cascade, 2015)