"And if ye be Christ's, then ye be Abraham's seed": An Etnography of a Czech Messianic Jewish Community
Abstract
The aim of the study is to acquaint the reader briefly with the movement of Messianic Judaism in the world and to introduce its specific Czech form in more depth. Based on almost two years of field research in the Messianic community in Prague, the author describes some selected aspects of the religiosity of this community, such as distinguishing between clean and unclean animals, celebrating Jewish holidays, observing the Sabbath or the community's specific relationship to the Torah.
It also clarifies the presence of non-Jewish believers in Messianic communities, which is typical of communities based in Europe. At the end of the text, the author places the movement, through the prism of Hervieu-Léger, in the context of the institutionalized-deinstitutionalized religiosity scale.