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12 - The Holocaust and Jewish Theology

from Part IV - Contemporary Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

Steven Kepnes
Affiliation:
Colgate University, New York
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Summary

The central theological questions raised for Jewish belief by the Holocaust concern the existence and nature of God. In this paper, I focus on four figures who addressed these theological questions in a serious way: Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer Berkovits, Irving Greenberg, and Hans Jonas. I show that Jonas’s argument for a limited and changing God is the most radical of these theological responses and that the radical character of his response can best be appreciated by contrasting his approach with the other three theological accounts, especially in terms of how the problem of theodicy functions in those accounts.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Selected Further Reading

Berkovits, Eliezer. Faith after the Holocaust. New York: KTAV, 1973.Google Scholar
Berkovits, Eliezer. God, Man and History: A Jewish Interpretation. Middle Village: Jonathan David Publishers, 1959.Google Scholar
Fackenheim, Emil L. Fackenheim’s Jewish Philosophy: An Introduction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Fackenheim, Emil L. God’s Presence in History. New York: New York University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Fackenheim, Emil L. The Jewish Return into History, New York: Schocken, 1978.Google Scholar
Fackenheim, Emil L. To Mend the World. New York: Schocken, 1982.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Irving. “Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire.” In Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era? Reflections on the Holocaust, 2655. Edited by Fleischner, Eva. New York: KTAV, 1977.Google Scholar
Jonas, Hans. “The Concept of God after Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice.The Journal of Religion 67.1 (1987): 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonas, Hans. Mortality and Morality: A Search for the Good after Auschwitz. Edited by Vogel, Lawrence. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Katz, Steven T., Biderman, Shlomo, and Greenberg, Gershon, eds. Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses during and after the Holocaust. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Morgan, Michael L. Beyond Auschwitz: Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubenstein, Richard L. After Auschwitz: History, Theology, and Contemporary Judaism, Second Edition. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Rubenstein, Richard L. Morality and Eros. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970.Google Scholar
Rubenstein, Richard L. and Roth, John K.. Approaches to Auschwitz. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1987.Google Scholar

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