Post-Holocaust Christian Reading

“Ask yourselves if the theology you are learning is such that it could remain unchanged before and after Auschwitz. If this be the case, be on your guard.”
Johannes Baptist Metz, The Emergent Church (trans. Peter Mann; New York: Crossroad, 1981), 29.

We live “Post-Holocaust,” or “After Auschwitz.” The Holocaust undeniably exposes Christianity’s long and persistent history of anti-Judaism; the Shoah graphically shows how Christianity’s troublesome relationship with Judaism can be used for deadly purposes. The events of the Holocaust sharpen our ability to see how our Christian readings of the Old and New Testaments have contributed to physical and emotional harm and violence against Jews.

In light of this horrifying event, which occurred less than a century ago, Christians seek to change our relationship with Jews by changing our theologies, interpretations, and liturgies. We strive to act as neighbors and to align our readings of the Bible, so these readings also become an act of loving our neighbor.

We agree with Walter Brueggemann when he states,

“For those who do interpretation—especially Christian interpretation—the Shoah stands as a dread-filled summons to unlearn a great deal. For Christians this means the unlearning of ‘final readings,’ for ‘final readings’ tend, I suggest, to give ground for ‘final solutions.’”
Walter Brueggemann, “A Fissure Always Uncontained,” in Strange Fire: Reading the Bible after the Holocaust (ed. Tod Linafelt; New York: New York University Press, 2000), 62-75, here 64.

[This post is adapted from my book, Unto Us A Child Is Born.]

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