A New Sinai? A New Exodus? Divine Presence During and After the Holocaust in the Theology of Emil Fackenheim

Abstract

I began chapter 2 with an explanation of how I came to the work of James Cone and, more importantly, why I believe he provides a vital contribution to any contemporary discussion of suffering and moral evil, as well as of God and human freedom and ethics. So, the question here is, why put any Jewish theologian into an encounter with Cone, and why Emil Fackenheim in particular?

Only in this midnight of dark despair does post-Holocaust thought come upon a shining light. The Nazi logic of destruction was irresistible: it was, nevertheless, being resisted. This logic is a novum in human history, the source of an unprecedented, abiding horror: but resistance to it on the part of the most radically exposed, too, is a novum in history, and it is the source of an unprecedented, abiding wonder. To hear and obey the commanding Voice of Auschwitz is an “ontological” possibility, here and now, because the hearing and obeying was already an “ontic” reality, then and there. (Emil Fackenheim, To Mend the World, 25)