Universal and particular themes in Jewish and Catholic social ethics after the Holocaust / by Matthew C. Larsen

Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust reveal interweaving tensions of universality and particularity in the Exodus and Sinai events. They express the universality of God's concern for all people and the particularity of God's covenant with the chosen people of Israel. While the Enlightenment encouraged Jewish thinkers to reevaluate the particular religious source of universal ethics, the violent intolerance of the Holocaust engendered in part by Enlightenment and Christian truth claims brought the modern project into question. As a result, Jewish and Catholic thinkers have made efforts to ground their truth claims in particular beliefs and identities while acknowledging the strength of universal claims in calling for justice. Their efforts to translate post-Holocaust values into religious and social practice demonstrate significant continuity between Jewish social criticism and Vatican II Catholic reform. Faith-based community organizing is an example of this continuity in its mediation of universality and particularity in grassroots democracy.