Supersessionism

Supersessionism, or replacement theology, is the idea that one religion ceases to be true once another religion shows up to supersede^[1] it.

For instance, Christianity believes that Judaism was true once but that because the Jews rejected Jesus they stopped being the Chosen People and that the New Testament and a faith-based religion replaced Jewish Law. Islam also believes that God gave the Torah alike to the Israelites at Mount Sinai but that the Quran ultimately replaced it.

Nowadays, supersessionism is widely deemed antisemitic as it laid the groundwork for the two millennia of Christian antisemitism and persecution of Jews that peaked in the Holocaust. Supersessionism is no longer backed by mainstream churches, reportedly including the Vatican,^[2] which have switched the focus to Christian–Jewish reconciliation.^[3] Some Christians endorse the dual-covenant theology (DCT) which holds that the Old Covenant between Jews and God is eternal, exempting Jews from the need of Christian conversion for receiving salvation.^[4]

A similar, or somewhat overlapping, Christian movement that upholds supersessionism is the Christian Identity (CI) movement, whose followers believe that White people to be the "real" descendants of ancient Israelites with whom God have a covenant.^[5] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) estimated in 2023 that the CI movement had 10 active groups in the United States.^[5][6]

• Society of Saint Pius X
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
• Roman Catholics and antisemitism in the 21st century

• Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries
• 12 Anti-Semitic Radical Traditionalist Catholic Groups
• Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400
• The Evil of Replacement Theology: The Historical Abuse of the Jews by the Church
• The Building of a Wall of Separation between New Testament Theology and Its Jewish Roots/Context: A Consideration of Early Church History and a Call for Re-Examination for 21st Century Everyday Theological Reality