Overview
- Summary
- This dissertation is devoted to an analysis of the ways in which Jewish thinkers addressed theological questions that arose in connection to the Holocaust. Through the close study of the war-time writings of Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) thinkers and of the post-war works of Jewish theologians it traces the role and position of covenantal theodicy, i.e. a response to evil and suffering that remains within the covenantal framework, in their reflections. The author argues that the theological responses to the Holocaust are determined by an understanding of history. In the analysis of the works of the Ultra-Orthodox thinkers (Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich, Shlomo Zalman Unsdorfer, Yissakhar Teichthal) Jacob Neusner's concept of paradigmatic thinking is employed to show that their perception of the events was shaped not only by a general interpretation of history as theophany and a scene upon which covenantal history unfolds but also by a premise according to which the history of the Jewish people develops in accord with a set of metahistorical paradigms or models discovered in the Bible. Covenantal theodicy is described as one of such models. The writings of Richard L. Rubenstein, Emil L. Fackenheim, and Eliezer Berkovits reflect and express a deep sense of the crisis of covenantal theodicy. In fact, post-Holocaust theology can be described as starting from the assumption that covenantal theodicy needs to be rejected in order for any discourse about the Holocaust to be acceptable. The author argues that the Holocaust should not be seen as the primary reason behind the crisis and traces the cognitive and cultural conditions of it to the developments associated with the rise of modernity. Specifically, the post-war crisis and rejection of the traditional covenantal theodicy is presented as a consequence of the appearance of the historicist mode of cognition with its rejection of supernatural explanations of history.
- Format
- Book
- Published
- 2013
- Notes
-
Dissertations and Theses
Physical Details
- Language
- Undetermined
- ISBN
- 9
- Additional Form
-
Electronic version(s) available online.
- Record last modified:
- 2025-04-17 16:16:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib246736
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