Fire in the Ashes: God, Evil, And the Holocaust

by Patterson, David

• ISBN13: 9780295985473
• ISBN10: 029598547X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-30
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

Sixty years after it ended, the Holocaust continues to leave survivors and their descendants, as well as historians, philosophers, and theologians, pondering the enormity of that event. This book explores how inquiry about the Holocaust challenges understanding, especially its religious and ethical dimensions. Debates about God's relationship to evil are ancient, but the Holocaust complicated them in ways never before imagined. Its massive destruction left Jews and Christians searching among the ashes to determine what, if anything, could repair the damage done to tradition and to theology. Since the end of the Holocaust, Jews and Christians have increasingly sought to know how or even whether theological analysis and reflection can aid in comprehending its aftermath. Specifically, Jews and Christians, individually and collectively, find themselves more and more in the position of needing either to rethink theodicy -- typically understood as the vindication of divine justice in the face of evil -- or to abolish the concept altogether. Writing in a format that creates the feel of dialogue, the contributors to Fire in the Ashes confront these and other difficult questions about God and evil after the Holocaust. This book -- created out of shared concerns and a desire to investigate differences and disagreements between religious traditions and philosophical perspectives -- represents an effort to advance meaningful conversation between Jews and Christians and to encourage others to participate in similar inter- and intra-faith inquiries. The contributors to Fire in the Ashes are members of the Pastora Goldner Holocaust Symposium. Led since its founding in 1996 by Leonard Grob and Henry F. Knight, the symposium's Holocaust and genocide scholars -- a group that is interfaith, international, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational -- meet biennially in Oxfordshire, England. David Patterson is Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies, University of Memphis. John K. Roth is Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy and director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College. They are both editors of and contributors to Fire in the Ashes. The other contributors are Margaret Brearley, Britta Frede-Wenger, Leonard Grob, Peter J. Haas, Hannah Holtschneider, Henry F. Knight, Juergen Manemann, Rochelle L. Millen, and Didier Polleyfeyt.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Flames in the Darkness	xi
David Patterson
John K. Roth
PART ONE: THE BURDEN OF EVIL	3	(106)
Fire and Ashes: The ``Tempter-God,'' Evil, and the Shoah	7	(27)
Margaret Brearley
Britta Frede-Wenger	21	(4)
David Patterson	25	(4)
Margaret Brearley	29	(5)
Jean Amery: Memories of Evil and Consequences for the Representation of Jewish Identity in Christian Theology	34	(25)
Hannah Holtschneider
Peter J. Haas	46	(4)
John K. Roth	50	(4)
Hannah Holtschneider	54	(5)
Judaism in Protestant Encounters with the Shoah	59	(25)
Peter J. Haas
Henry F. Knight	70	(5)
Rochelle L. Millen	75	(4)
Peter J. Haas	79	(5)
Locating God: Placing Ourselves in a Post-Shoah World	84	(25)
Henry F. Knight
Margaret Brearley	95	(5)
Leonard Grob	100	(4)
Henry F. Knight	104	(5)
PART TWO: SEARCHING TRADITIONS	109	(106)
``Like Pebbles on the Seashore'': J. B. Soloveitchik on Suffering	113	(24)
Rochelle L. Millen
Hannah Holtschneider	126	(6)
Juergen Manemann	132	(2)
Rochelle L. Millen	134	(3)
``Good'' Friday after Auschwitz?	137	(23)
Britta Frede-Wenger
Henry F. Knight	149	(4)
Rochelle L. Millen	153	(3)
Britta Frede-Wenger	156	(4)
If the Good Becomes the Evil: Antimonotheism in Germany after Reunification and the Problems of the Doctrine of Justification	160	(29)
Juergen Manemann
David Patterson	174	(4)
Didier Pollefeyt	178	(6)
Juergen Manemann	184	(5)
Some Fundamental Doubts about Posing the Question of Theodicy in the Post-Holocaust World	189	(26)
Leonard Grob
Margaret Brearley	200	(4)
Didier Pollefeyt	204	(5)
Leonard Grob	209	(6)
PART THREE: BEYOND THE RUINS?	215	(84)
Horror Vacui: God and Evil in/after Auschwitz	219	(24)
Didier Pollefeyt
Britta Frede-Wenger	231	(3)
Peter J. Haas	234	(4)
Didier Pollefeyt	238	(5)
Deliver us from Evil? Kuhn's Prayer and the Masters of Death	243	(29)
John K. Roth
Leonard Grob	258	(4)
Juergen Manemann	262	(3)
John K. Roth	265	(7)
Seeking the Fire in the Ashes: A Chasidic Accounting for Evil from the Midst of Evil after the Evil of Auschwitz	272	(27)
David Patterson
Hannah Holtschneider	283	(5)
John K. Roth	288	(6)
David Patterson	294	(5)
Postscript: The Disturbance of the Witness	299	(8)
David Patterson
John K. Roth
Bibliography	307	(22)
About the Editors and Contributors	329	(6)
Index	335