On the Side of the Angels

by Baird, Marie L.

• ISBN13: 9789042911567
• ISBN10: 9042911565
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Peeters Pub & Booksellers

Summary

The Holocaust demands a rethinking of spirituality, both human and Christian. Traditional definitions of spirituality that focus on the human capacity for self-transcendence in relation to an ultimate horizon of meaning, whether or not that ultimate horizon is called 'God', are inadequate after the Holocaust to the degree that they make ethical responsibility a secondary consideration. Because the unthinkable has, in fact, happened, a contemporary spirituality must locate ethical responsibility for the other at the heart of human subjectivity and self-transcendence. The extreme suffering of the incarcerated and murdered, as well as the ethical engagement of the rescuers cry out for a newly articulated spirituality that defines self-transcendence primarily as ethical responsibility. discussion situated at the nexus of philosophy and spirituality. This discussion seeks to characterize spirituality by using terms other than the traditional categories of being. Such an approach may reveal the contours and dynamics of a spirituality springing from the ethical consideration of the other. This study defines spirituality as fundamentally self-transcending ethical engagement in which the subject 'enacts' himself or herself into the fullness of his or her humanity. This new perspective stresses ethical engagement over the ontologically-based conceptual categories found in traditional philosophical or theological anthropologies (Peeters 2002)

Table of Contents

Preface	1	(5)
Chapter 1 THE SEARCH FOR SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
I. Introduction: the Self as Irreducible Point of Departure	6	(2)
II. Self-Transcendence Toward a Horizon of Ultimate Meaning	8	(1)
III. What is Christian Spirituality as Commonly Defined and Practiced?	9	(5)
IV. Current Academic Definitions of Human and Christian Spirituality	14	(6)
V. The Current Status of Christian Spirituality: Postmodern Diversity?	20	(2)
VI. The Dangers of Dualism and Individualism	22	(3)
VII. Who is The Other and What Does Our Responsibility Entail?	25	(2)
VIII. Are 'Otherness' and 'Community' Compatible?	27	(2)
IX. Summary	29	(1)
Chapter 2 TOTALIZED BEING AND PERSECUTED OTHERNESS
I. Introduction: Replacing Systems with Subjects	30	(4)
II. Ideological versus True Order in History	34	(2)
III. The Vulnerable Other as Subject of the System	36	(3)
IV. The Incarcerated Other as Victim of the System	39	(5)
V. The Meaninglessness of Suffering in Extremity	44	(3)
VI. Life after 'Liberation'	47	(4)
VII. Survival and Responsibility: The Primacy of Subjects	51	(5)
VIII. Summary	56	(2)
Chapter 3 THE ETHICAL ENCOUNTER
I. Introduction: Why Overthrow Ontology as First Philosophy?	58	(2)
II. Totalized Intentionality and The German Churches	60	(6)
III. Relativized Intentionality and Ethical Responsibility	66	(3)
IV. Ethical Subjectivity: Proximity, Substitution, Hostage	69	(4)
V. Self-Transcendence as Accused Sensibility	73	(1)
VI. The Face of The Other: The Trace of God	74	(6)
VII. Ethics Is Not Theology: Is It Spirituality?	80	(2)
VIII. A Critical Interlude: John Caputo's Poetics of Obligation	82	(3)
IX. A Second Critical Interlude: James Olthuis's Ethics of Mutuality	85	(2)
X. Summary	87	(2)
Chapter 4 ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY AND HOLOCAUST RESCUERS
I. Introduction: Levinas's Ethics: A Hermeneutic of Rescue?	89	(1)
II. The Role of Lived Experience in Levinas's Thought	90	(5)
III. Affective Self-Transcendence	95	(5)
IV. Current Theories of Rescue	100	(3)
V. The Religious Dimension of Rescue	103	(7)
VI. Rescuers Teach 'The Full Resonance of Civilization'	110	(6)
VII. Summary	116	(3)
Chapter 5 TOWARD A POST-HOLOCAUST SPIRITUALITY
I. Introduction	119	(1)
II. The Other as The Irreducible Point of Departure	120	(5)
III. The Face of the Other and The Trace of God	125	(1)
IV. Christian Faith, Good Works, and Post-Holocaust Spirituality	126	(2)
V. Post-Holocaust Spirituality: beyond Dualism and Individualism	128	(1)
VI. Post-Holocaust Spirituality and a Community of Others	129	(3)
VII. Post-Holocaust Spirituality: Beyond Community	132	(2)
VIII. Ethical Responsibility and the Hands of God	134	(4)
IX. Survivors' and Rescuers' Legacy to Us: a Personal Reflection	138
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books	140	(3)
Articles	143