Reading the Hebrew Bible After the Shoah: Engaging Holocaust Theology

Is theology possible after the Shoah? Marvin Sweeney challenges biblical theologians to take that question with utmost seriousness. Sweeney examines often ignored biblical texts where ancient Israel contemplated the problem of apparent divine absence and "divine evil," and finds the perspective of post-Holocaust theology an indispensable interpretive resource. In biblical stories like those of Abraham, Moses, Jeroboam, Manasseh, Josiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Esther, Job, and more, Sweeney finds the recognition "that human beings cannot always depend upon God to act to ensure righteousness in the world." The insistence, common among Holocaust theologians, that human beings must assume their own responsibility for doing justice and righteousness in the world is, Sweeney argues, powerfully present already in the Bible itself. This book is an important contribution to modern biblical theology and to Holocaust theology as well.