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Strange Fire: Reading the Bible after the Holocaust
Strange Fire: Reading the Bible after the Holocaust

Strange Fire: Reading the Bible after the Holocaust

by Walter Brueggemann, Elie Weisel, Timothy K. Beal, Chris Boesel, B. Barry Levy, Rolf Rendtorff, Björn Krondorfer, O. E. Ajzenstat, Matthew del Nevo, Steven L. Jacobs, Roland Boer, Jennifer L. Koosed, Katharina von Kellenbach, Patricia K. Tull, Marvin A. Sweeney, Francis Landy, Richard L. Rubenstein, Stephen Kepnes, Tod Linafelt, and Mark K. George

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WorldCat Google Amazon CBD
Pages 304
Publisher New York University Press
Published 2000
ISBN-13 9780814751664
There can be little doubt that the Holocaust was an event of major consequence for the twentieth century. While there have been innumerable volumes published on the implications of the Holocaust for history, philosophy, and ethics, there has been a surprising lack of attention paid to the theoretical and practical effects of the Shoah on biblical interpretation.

Strange Fire addresses the implications of the Holocaust for interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, bringing together a diverse and distinguished range of contributors, including Richard Rubenstein, Elie Wiesel, and Walter Brueggemann, to discuss theoretical and methodological considerations emerging from the Shoah and to demonstrate the importance of these considerations in the reading of specific biblical texts. The volume addresses such issues as Jewish and Christian biblical theology after the Holocaust, the ethics of Christian appropriation of Jewish scripture, and the rethinking of biblical models of suffering and sacrifice from a post-Holocaust perspective.

The first book of its kind, Strange Fire will establish a benchmark for all future work on the topic.

  • Table of Contents
  • Matters of survival : a conversation - Elie Weisel, Timothy K. Beal
  • Rupture and context : the ethical dimensions of a post-Holocaust Biblical hermeneutics - Chris Boesel
  • Rabbinic Bible interpretation after the Holocaust - B. Barry Levy
  • A fissure always uncontained - Walter Brueggemann
  • The Hebrew Bible in the framework of Christian-Jewish relations in post-Holocaust Germany - Rolf Rendtorff
  • Of faith and faces : Biblical texts, Holocaust testimony and German 'after Auschwitz' theology - Björn Krondorfer
  • Beyond totality : the Shoah and the Biblical ethics of Emmanuel Levinas - O.E. Ajzenstat
  • Edmond Jabès and the question of death - Matthew del Nevo
  • Avraham, Emil and Andre : re-reading Avraham's Monologue with the divine in light of Fackenheim and Neher - Steven L. Jacobs
  • Banality and sacrifice - Roland Boer
  • Written in stone : Biblical quotation in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Jennifer L. Koosed
  • Am I a murderer? Judges 19-21 as a parable of meaningless suffering - Katharina von Kellenbach
  • 'Isaiah 'twas foretold it' : helping the church interpret the prophets - Patricia K. Tull
  • Isaiah and theodicy after the Shoah - Marvin A. Sweeney
  • The covenant with death - Francis Landy
  • Job and Auschwitz - Richard L. Rubenstein
  • Job and post-Holocaust theodicy - Stephen Kepnes
  • Zion's cause : the presentation of pain in the Book of Lamentations - Tod Linafelt
  • Death as a beginning of life in the Book of Ecclesiastes - Mark K. George.

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Review of Biblical Literature (RBL) (Frederick E Greenspahn) Review of Biblical Literature (RBL) November 26, 2000
One might almost say that there are really two Holocausts. The first, of course, took place in Europe over half a century ago, but it is another Holocaust that came to overwhelm Western culture during the latter half of the twentieth century. To be sure, it is events from the thirties and the forties that are regularly invoked by those who have spoken of the Holocaust over the past twenty years, but there is ample evidence that matters are more complex than their rhetoric would suggest. Most dramatic is the chronological cleavage separating the two, with many years of near silence passing before the historical Holocaust began to receive the attention we have come to take for granted. In addition, it is worth noting how many of the nearly ubiquitous references to the Holocaust in our own time come from and are even led by people who have no experience of the actual Holocaust, leading one to wonder about their motivation in raising these issues. As historian Peter Novick has put it, why here and why now? (The Holocaust in American Life [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999], 1-2). This collection of essays brings the Holocaust into the realm of biblical studies, or at least biblical theology. That possibility was first signaled almost a decade ago, with the publication of The Jewish Bible after the Holocaust: A Re-reading (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990) by the eminent Holocaust philosopher Emil Fackenheim. This new anthology continues in the same direction, with nineteen essays devoted to "reading the Bible after the Holocaust." The title Strange Fire is taken from the book of Leviticus, where Nadab and Abihu are said to have offered an )e4s za \ ra 4 = (Lev 10:1), a phrase that is presented here as a metaphor for the Holocaust. [Full Review]