Editing Supersessionism (section)

===Church Fathers===
[[File:Justin Martyr.jpg|thumb|Justin Martyr considered Christians the true spiritual Israel.]]
Many [[early Christian]] commentators taught that the Old Covenant was fulfilled and superseded by the New Covenant in Christ, for instance, [[Justin Martyr]] wrote that the "true spiritual Israel" referred to those who had "been led to God through this crucified Christ".{{sfn |Justin Martyr|loc=chpt. 11}} [[Irenaeus]] taught that, while the New Covenant had superseded the old, the moral law underlying the [[Law of Moses]] continued to stand in the New Covenant.{{sfn|Means|1903|p=[https://archive.org/details/saintpaulandant00meangoog/page/n199 183]}} Whereas, [[Tertullian]] believed that the New Covenant brought with it a [[Law of Christ|new law]], writing: "Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices, the old law being obliterated, the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates. ...Therefore, as we have shown above that the coming cessation of the old law and of the [[Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|carnal circumcision]] was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and the spiritual circumcision has shone out into the voluntary observances of peace."{{sfn|Tertullian|loc=chpt. 3}}

[[Augustine of Hippo]] followed the views of the earlier [[Church Fathers]] but emphasized the importance to Christianity of the continued existence of the separate Rabbinic Jewish faith: "The Jews ... are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ."{{sfn |Augustine|loc=18.46}} The Catholic church built its system of [[eschatology]] on his theology, where Christ rules the earth spiritually through his [[Church Triumphant|triumphant church]]. Augustine, however, also mentioned to "love" the Jews as a means to [[Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews|convert]] them to Christianity.{{sfn |Michael |2011 |p=29}} Jeremy Cohen,{{sfn |Cohen |1991 |pp=13–14}} followed by John Y. B. Hood and James Carroll,{{sfn |Hood |1995 |p=12}} sees this as having had decisive social consequences, with Carroll saying, "It is not too much to say that, at this juncture, Christianity 'permitted' Judaism to endure because of Augustine."{{sfn |Carroll |2001}}