Narrative Theology After Auschwitz

""Amidst the tumult and confusion of the times, John W. Aldridge has kept a singular purity of vision," said the New York Times Book Review. While the changing editorial policies of the major book reviews and magazines threaten to make serious literary criticism a thing of the past, Aldridge still believes that books and their ideas have a living relation to daily life. Taken together, these essays offer not only a survey of John Aldridge's distinguished career as a critic, but also an intriguing picture of the evolution of contemporary literature."--BOOK JACKET.

""Amidst the tumult and confusion of the times, John W. Aldridge has kept a singular purity of vision," said the New York Times Book Review. While the changing editorial policies of the major book reviews and magazines threaten to make serious literary criticism a thing of the past, Aldridge still believes that books and their ideas have a living relation to daily life. Taken together, these essays offer not only a survey of John Aldridge's distinguished career as a critic, but also an intriguing picture of the evolution of contemporary literature."--BOOK JACKET.

This book addresses the problem of religion, ethics, and public policy in a global technological civilization. It attempts to do what narrative ethicists have said cannot be done—to construct a cross-cultural ethic of human dignity, human rights, and human liberation which respects the diversity of narrative traditions. It seeks to do this without succumbing to either ethical relativism or ethical absolutism. The author confronts directly the dominant narrative of our technological civilization: the Janus-faced myths of “Apocalypse or Utopia.” Through this myth, we view technology ambivalently, as both the object of our dread and the source of our hope. The myth thus renders us ethically impotent: the very strength of our literal utopian euphoria sends us careening toward some literal apocalyptic “final solution.” The demonic narrative that dominated Auschwitz (“killing in order to heal”) is part of this Janus-faced technological mythos that emerged out of Hiroshima. And it is this mythic narrative which underlies and structures much of public policy in our nuclear age. This book proposes a coalition of members of holy communities and secular groups, organized to prevent any future eruptions of the demonic. Its goal is to construct a bridge not only over the abyss between religions, East and West, but also between religious and secular ethics.

Many argue that Christians must address their own culpability in the destruction of Europe's Jewry. If post-Holocaust Christians only lament Christianity's sin the tradition will be ultimately left with little to say and no credibility. Post-Holocaust Christians must emphasize positive differences that Christianity can make, including: -- Repentant honesty about Christianity's anti-Jewish history -- New appreciation for the Jewish origins of Christianity, the Jewish identity of Jesus, and the continuing vitality of the Jewish people and their traditions -- Welcome liberation from liturgies and biblical interpretations that promote harmful Christian exclusivism

This book takes up the challenge of providing a way to do Christian theology that is both sensitive to the questions arising in the Shoah and incorporates the advances of Jewish-Christian dialogue. Moore's approach also offers new thinking on the difficult texts of the Christian passion narratives as an example of the post-Shoah Christian theology. He expresses a hopeful outlook, that we are on the threshold of a new stage in theology and dialogue; a new generation of thinkers, both Jewish and Christian, are asking how we can move forward and apply the lessons learned from the events of the Shoah.

Stephen Haynes takes a hard look at contemporary Christian theology as he explores the pervasive Christian "witness-people" myth that dominates much Christian thinking about the Jews in both Christian and Jewish minds. This myth, an ancient theological construct that has put Jews in the role of living symbols of God's dealings with the world, has for centuries, according to Haynes, created an ambivalence toward the Jews in the Christian mind with often disastrous results. Tracing the witness-people myth from its origins to its manifestations in the modern world, Haynes finds the myth expressed in many unexpected places: the writings of Karl Barth, the novels and essays of Walker Percy, the "prophetic" writings of Hal Lindsey, as well as in the work of some North American Holocaust theologians such as Alice L. and A. Roy Eckardt, Paul van Buren, and Franklin Littell.

What is the relationship between feminist theology and classical Christian theology? Is feminist theology "Christian," and if so, in what respect and to what extent? This study seeks to analyze and evaluate the relation of feminist "reconstructions" to traditional Christian teaching. Greene-McCreight uses the extent to which the biblical depiction of God is allowed to guide theological hermeneutics as a test of orthodoxy. She looks at the writings of a wide range of contemporary feminist theologians, discusses their doctrinal patterns, and demonstrates how the Bible is used in undergirding their theological reconstructions.

Explores the work of post-Holocaust Jewish and Christian thinkers who reject theodicy—arguments explaining why a loving God can permit evil and suffering in the world.