News

Concordia University of Edmonton’s Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies is pleased to announce the publication of The Community of the Faithful: Jesus as a Personification of Servant Israel, authored by CUE alumnus Arsh Khaira and with a foreword by Dr. Steven Muir, Professor of Religious Studies.

Arsh Khaira is a scholar, writer, and musician from Sherwood Park, Alberta. He completed his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Biblical and Christian Studies at CUE. 

Based on an extension of the traditional Jewish theological interpretations of the texts of Daniel 7 and Isaiah 53, we can develop the perceptual lens that Jesus’ role was to singularly personify the collective nation of Israel and to not only relive their history but to carry out their ultimate destiny in a microcosm. The Jewish prophets spoke of a death and resurrection experience that Israel would have to undergo, and these took place in both the bondage and slavery in Egypt (death) and the subsequent restoration to the promised land (resurrection), and a second time in the exile to Babylon (death) and then restoration to the Holy Land and re-consecration of the temple by the Persians (resurrection). But this death and resurrection experience was actualized and finalized by Jesus himself, who singularly represented and personified his people, Israel. This act became the literal fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament and conclusively restored the House of Israel to their promised place based on the original covenant as extended to Abraham and his descendants.– Wipf and Stock

The Community of the Faithful: Jesus as a Personification of Servant Israel is available for purchase from the publisher’s website: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666708295/the-community-of-the-faithful/