Premium
Reclaiming Bonhoeffer After Auschwitz
Author(s) -
Smith Robert O.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
dialog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1540-6385
pISSN - 0012-2033
DOI - 10.1111/j.0012-2033.2004.00210.x
Subject(s) - the holocaust , nazism , martyr , judaism , genocide , racism , religious studies , prison , state (computer science) , philosophy , sociology , psychoanalysis , theology , criminology , psychology , german , linguistics , algorithm , computer science
: Christians having sought refuge from guilt by claiming Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonheoffer to be their representative have come under critique by Jewish Holocaust thinkers. Was the historical Bonhoeffer complicit in the anti‐Semitism of his era or a model of prophetic heroism in the face of state sponsored racism and genocide? This article traces the early history of Bonhoeffer's thinking on the “Jewish Question” and the implications of his prison writings for the future of Jewish‐Christian relations. Simplistic defenses and simplistic dismissals fall short of understanding this most complex of theological figures.