Strange Fire : Reading the Bible after the Holocaust

by Linafelt, Tod

• ISBN13: 9780814751664
• ISBN10: 0814751660
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

There can be little doubt that the Holocaust was an event of major consequence for the twentieth century. While there have been innumerable volumes published on the implications of the Holocaust for history, philosophy, and ethics, there has been a surprising lack of attention paid to the theoretical and practical effects of the Shoah on biblical interpretation.Strange Fireaddresses the implications of the Holocaust for interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, bringing together a diverse and distinguished range of contributors, including Richard Rubenstein, Elie Wiesel, and Walter Brueggemann, to discuss theoretical and methodological considerations emerging from the Shoah and to demonstrate the importance of these considerations in the reading of specific biblical texts. The volume addresses such issues as Jewish and Christian biblical theology after the Holocaust, the ethics of Christian appropriation of Jewish scripture, and the rethinking of biblical models of suffering and sacrifice from a post-Holocaust perspective.The first book of its kind,Strange Firewill establish a benchmark for all future work on the topic.

Author Biography

Tod Linafelt is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Georgetown University

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	9	(14)
Acknowledgements	14	(1)
Introduction: Strange Fires, Ancient and Modern	15	(7)
Tod Linafelt
PART I: ISSUES IN POST-HOLOCAUST INTERPRETATION
Matters of Survival: A Conversation	22	(14)
Elie Wiesel
Timothy K. Beal
Rupture and Context: The Ethical Dimensions of a Post-Holocaust Biblical Hermeneutics	36	(16)
Chris Boesel
Rabbinic Bible Interpretation after the Holocaust	52	(10)
B. Barry Levy
A Fissure Always Uncontained	62	(14)
Walter Brueggemann
The Hebrew Bible in the Framework of Christian-Jewish Relations in Post-Holocaust Germany	76	(10)
Rolf Rendtorff
Of Faith and Faces: Biblical Texts, Holocaust Testimony and German `After Auschwitz' Theology	86	(20)
Bjorn Krondorfer
Beyond totality: the Shoah and the Biblical Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas	106	(15)
O.E. Ajzenstat
Edmond Jabes and the Question of Death	121	(15)
Matthew del Nevo
PART II: ENGAGING BIBLICAL TEXTS IN LIGHT OF THE HOLOCAUST
Avraham, Emil and Andre: Re-Reading Avraham's Monologue with the Divine in Light of Fackenheim and Neher	136	(10)
Steven L. Jacobs
Banality and Sacrifice	146	(15)
Roland Boer
Written in Stone: Biblical Quotation in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum	161	(15)
Jennifer L. Koosed
Am I a Murderer? Judges 19--21 as a Parable of Meaningless Suffering	176	(16)
Katharina von Kellenbach
`Isaiah 'Twas Foretold It': Helping the Church Interpret the Prophets	192	(16)
Patricia K. Tull
Isaiah and Theodicy after the Shoah	208	(12)
Marvin A. Sweeney
The Covenant with Death	220	(13)
Francis Landy
Job and Auschwitz	233	(19)
Richard L. Rubenstein
Job and Post-Holocaust Theodicy	252	(15)
Stephen Kepnes
Zion's Cause: The Presentation of Pain in the Book of Lamentations	267	(13)
Tod Linafelt
Death as the Beginning of Life in the Book of Ecclesiastes	280	(14)
Mark K. George
Suggestions for Further Reading	294	(2)
Index of Biblical References	296	(5)
Index of Authors	301