Title: After the Holocaust
Subtitle: Re-Defining Post-Modern Jewish Thought
Subject Classification:  Religion and Faith, Philosophy, History  
BIC Classification: HRCC, HPS
BISAC Classification: HIS043000, REL040000, PHI022000
Binding: Hardback, eBook
Planned publication date: Aug 2026
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-83711-916-5
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-83711-917-2

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Description

The Holocaust created a theological crisis for Jews and Christians--so that, by the late 1960s, a critical mass of Jewish thinkers were wrestling with the theodicy question: how can there be the sort of God in which Jews (and Christians) traditionally believe, in the face of so much suffering. But sociologically the Holocaust represented the culminating failure for Jews in the West to find a safe and reliable place in the mainstream. Thus one might re-direct the terminology of Jewish thought from a modern to a post-modern era.

This book begins with an analysis of key works by Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi, before examining a handful of thinkers who address the theodicy question, from Richard Rubenstein to Emil Fackenheim. It includes the preoccupations of prose fiction (Saul Bellow) and poetry (Nelly Sachs) and addresses the question of where the perspective of a non-Jewish German poet like Ursula Duba does or doesn't fit into the rubric of modern Jewish thought, given the unique circumstances of the Holocaust and the German role within it. The narrative then continues along multiple, related paths: from the literature of Borges, with its plethora of Jewish, specifically kabbalistic elements--but who found himself without obvious Jewish forbears. Then to Moacyr Scliar and his stunning allegorical novel, The Centaur in the Garden; and Hannah Arendt's (in)famous discussion of the Eichmann trial and her essay on freedom--how is either of these works identifiable as "Jewish" in a post-modern reality? It also covers Levinas' nuanced essay on philosophy and theology, and Eugene Borowtiz's attempt to summarize the course of post-modern Jewish thinking. The book offers a consideration of our subject, albeit with interesting flaws and unresolved issues--singularly appropriate as a culminating angle from which to ask the aporetic question of post-modern Jewish thought.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr Ori Z Soltes teaches theology, art history, philosophy, and political history at Georgetown University, USA.

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