Conceptions of God, Freedom, and Ethics in African American and Jewish Theology »

Kurt Buhring is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College. His areas of scholarly and teaching interest include contemporary theology, interreligious dialogue, and religion and science.

This book is a consideration of major contemporary African American and Jewish theological understandings of God, human nature, moral evil, suffering, and ethics, utilizing the work of James Cone and Emil Fackenheim. Specifically, it examines how profound faith in a just God is sustained, and even strengthened, in the face of particularly horrific and long-standing evil and suffering in a community. The constructive portion of the book explores theological possibilities by focusing on the concepts of human freedom, resistance, and responsibility--all grounded in divine gift--as an effective and meaningful response to oppression and despair.

1 Introducing Black and Jewish Responses to Experiences of Moral Evil and Suffering 1

2 What Does the Christian Gospel Have to Do with the Black Power Movement?: James Cone's God of the Oppressed 15

3 Why Divine Goodness or Power? Why God? Why Liberation?: Critiques and Affirmations of James Cone 61

4 A New Sinai? A New Exodus? Divine Presence During and After the Holocaust in the Theology of Emil Fackenheim 85

5 After the Holocaust: The Destruction of the God of History, of Chosenness, and of Patriarchy; Critiques and Affirmations of Emil Fackenheim 131

6 A Consideration of Humanocentric Theism, Resistance, and Redemption 159

Notes 197

Bibliography 233

Index 255