Authors: Dan Cohn-Sherbok
ISBN-13: 9780814716205, ISBN-10: 0814716202
Format: Paperback
Publisher: New York University Press
Date Published: February 2002
Edition: 1st Edition
Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok is Professor of Judaism at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and is the author or editor of more than 50 books, including God and the Holocaust and Understanding the Holocaust.
In this study, Cohn-Sherbok explores the work of eight Holocaust theologians: Bernard Maza, Ignaz Maybaum, Emil Fackenheim, Eliezer Berkovits, Arthur A. Cohen, Richard Rubenstein, Elie Wiesel, and Marc Ellis. He argues that all ultimately fail to reconcile, as they must, the reality of suffering with the loving kindness of God.
The Holocaust starkly challenges theologians to answer the profoundly perplexing question at the foundation of theodicy: why does an omnipotent, benevolent God permit evil to exist in the world? Most of the selections in this anthology deal with theodicy, although only a few actually use that term. Cohn-Sherbok, a professor of Judaism at the University of Wales, brings together the responses of more than 100 Christian and Jewish thinkers. For each one, Cohn-Sherbok provides brief excerpts from their writings, grouped into four overlapping categories: "The Challenge," "Faith in the Dead Camps," "Wrestling with the Holocaust" and "Jews, Christians and the Holocaust." Some of the authors are little known, but many are more familiar, such as Elie Wiesel, Paul Tillich, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jacob Neusner and Primo Levi. They repeatedly quote from each other. The book begins with a useful summary of its contents and a history of the Holocaust. Cohn-Sherbok also provides an epilogue, "The Future of Holocaust Theology," in which he states the conclusion reached by many of the writers: the Holocaust "is an unfathomable mystery." A less significant mystery is in the inclusion of two obscure individuals, Julio de Santa Ana and Marc Ellis, who somehow subvert Holocaust theology into an attack on the State of Israel, accusing it of "oppression of the Palestinian masses" and torturing Palestinian prisoners. These writers diminish the value of Cohn-Sherbok's compilation, since their comments contrast sharply with the more thoughtful and balanced efforts of the other contributors. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Chapter Outline | ||
Glossary | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
The Holocaust: Historical Background | 26 | |
Pt. I | The Challenge | 39 |
1 | The Religious Challenge of the Holocaust | 41 |
Pt. II | Faith in the Death Camps | 71 |
2 | Religious Faith | 73 |
3 | The Holocaust and Divine Providence | 93 |
4 | The Holocaust and Mystery | 106 |
5 | Faithfulness and Suffering | 112 |
Pt. III | Wrestling with the Holocaust | 123 |
6 | The Suffering of God | 127 |
7 | Human Free Will | 153 |
8 | The Holocaust and Christian Faith | 170 |
9 | The Holocaust and the Kingdom | 178 |
10 | The Holocaust and Covenant | 186 |
11 | The Holocaust and Human Evil | 192 |
12 | The Holocaust and Jewish Survival | 216 |
13 | Reconstructing Judaism | 237 |
Pt. IV | Jews, Christians and the Holocaust | 271 |
14 | The Holocaust and Christian Responsibility | 273 |
15 | Re-evaluating Christian Theology | 313 |
16 | Jewish - Christian Dialogue | 355 |
Epilogue: The Future of Holocaust Theology | 383 | |
Bibliography | 389 | |
Acknowledgements | 399 | |
Index of Authors | 401 | |
General Index | 405 |