A Shadow of Glory. Reading the New Testament After the Holocaust PDF
Preview A Shadow of Glory. Reading the New Testament After the Holocaust
A SHADOW OF GLORY A SHADOW OF GLORY Reading the New Testament after the Holocaust Tod Linafelt, Editor I~ ~~~;~~n~~~up NEWYORKANDLONDON Publishedin2002by Routledge 29West35thStreet NewYork,NY 10001 www.routledge-ny.com PublishedinGreatBritainby Routledge 11NewFetterLane LondonEC4P4EE www.routledge.co.uk RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup. Copyright©2002byRoutledge PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacidfreepaper. Allrightsreserved.Nopart ofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilizedinanyformor byanyelectronic,mechanicalorothermeans,nowknown orhereafterinvented,includingphoto copying and recording or in anyinformation storage or retrievalsystem, without permission in writingfromthepublishers. Excerpt fromthepoem "ZoonPolitikon"used,withpermission,from MarieLuiseKaschnitz:Uber allnieAusgewahlteGedichte1928-1965©ClaassenVerlag. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Ashadowofglory:readingtheNewTestamentaftertheHolocaustITodLinafelt,editor. p.cm. Includesindex. ISBN0-415-93793-0(hardback)-ISBN0-415-93794-9(pbk.) 1.Bible.N.T.-Criticism,interpretation,etc. 2.Holocaust (Christiantheology) I.Linafelt,Tod,1965 BS2370.5532002 225.6'09'04s-dc21 2002004904 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix TodLinafelt PART I: THE HOLOCAUST IN THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION 1. The ChristianCanonand theProblemofAntisemitism 3 PamelaEisenbaum 2. HigherCriticson LateTexts:ReadingBiblicalScholarship afterthe Holocaust 18 DeborahKrauseandTimothyK.Beal 3. ReadingJesusasaNazi 27 SusannahHeschel 4. Shoah Consciousnessand theSilence ofAmericanChristianBiblicalScholarship 42 MarkK.George PART II: READING AS JEWS S. Bloodon OurHeads:AJewishResponsetoSaintMatthew 57 Steven1.Jacobs 6. TheApostleand the SeedofAbraham 68 Richard1.Rubenstein 7. Double Bind:Sacrificeinthe Epistleto theHebrews 89 Jennifer1.Koosed VI CONTENTS PART III: READING AS CHRISTIANS 8. Readingfrom the Day"InBetween" 105 WalterBrueggemann 9. WomanasWitness inaPost-HolocaustPerspective 117 MargieTolstoy 1O. NewTestamentTheologyafter the Holocaust: ExegeticalResponsibilitiesandCanonicalPossibilities 128 LloydGaston 11. Reading the CrossatAuschwitz:HolocaustMemories andPassion Narratives 140 Tania Oldenhage 12. Did ChristianityDieinAuschwitz? 155 RolfRendtorff PART IV: JEWS AND GENTILES, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND TODAY 13. The Passion afterthe Holocaust 171 JohnDominicCrossan 14. Restoringthe Kingdomto Israel: Luke-ActsandChristianSupersessionism 185 CraigC.Hill 15. The JewPauland His Meaningfor Israel 201 JamesD.G.Dunn 16. Readingafter the Holocaust: ANewTestamentScholar RespondstoEmilFackenheim 216 LukeTimothyJohnson 17. The KillingFieldsofMatthew'sGospel 232 GaryA.Phillips Contributors 249 Index 251 Acknowledgments Material inSusannahHeschel'sarticle,"ReadingJesusasaNazi;'waspreviously published in her earlier article, "Redemptive Anti-Semitism;' in R.Thompson and T.Phillips, eds., Literary Studies in Luke-Acts:Essaysin Honor ofJosephB. Tyson(Macon, GA:Mercer University Press, 1998).Aslightlydifferent, earlier versionofJamesD.G.Dunn'sarticle,"TheJewPaulandHisMeaningforIsrael;' waspreviouslypublishedin UdoSchnelleand ThomasSoding,eds.,Paulinische Christologie:Festschrift Hans Hubner (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000).Gary A.Phillips's article,"The KillingFieldsof Matthew's Gospel;' was firstpublishedin Fiona Black,Roland Boer,and Erin Runions, eds., TheLabour ofReading: Desire,Alienation and Biblical Interpretation, Semeia Studies (At lanta: Scholars Press, 1999).I gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint all three pieces. I am also grateful to Kathryn McMahon and to Mythri Iegathesan, both of Georgetown University,for their help in preparingthe manuscriptfor publica tion,and toNickStreet,ofRoutledge,forpatientlyseeingitthrough. T.L. Introduction TOO LINAFELT Inattemptingtoarticulatethe waysinwhich thesacrificeofJesusChristhassu percededthesacrificialsystem ofJudaism, the authorofthe NewTestamentlet ter to the Hebrews draws heavily on the image of the shadow. The Israelite priestly service is deemed "a shadow ofheavenly things" (8:5), and the Torah merely"ashadowofthe good tocome"(10:1).Inshort,Judaism before Christis presentedas ashadowofglory,areligion thatwasuseful in afallen and limited way,butmustnowbeabandonedinlight ofthefullnessofChrist.Forathinker steepedinPlatonicthoughtandstrugglingtoencouragewhatwaslikelyasmall, threatenedcommunity,the characterizationisan effectiverhetoricalmaneuver. Butforreaders todaythe"shadowofglory"takeson amoreunsettlingmeaning. Forafter nearly two millenniait isclearthatsuch Christiansupersessionismhas haddireconsequencesforJewsandJudaism. From forcedconversions,tocount lesspogroms,tothe systematicmurderofsixmillion Jewsin NaziGermany, the "glory" ofChristianity'striumph in the Westhas indeedcastalong andbaleful shadow.The presentvolumelooksoutfrom this shadowback at the textsofthe NewTestamentandexplores howthose textsmightberead differentlyinlight of the Holocaust. Onecannot,ofcourse, simplylaythe blame for along andbaleful historyof Christian antisemitism at the feet of the New Testament writers. Indeed, for most of those writers there did not even exist a separate religion known as "Christianity:' and none could have foreseen the unholy mixture of religious ideology, nineteenth-century racial theory, and modern technology of mass X INTRODUCTION death that resulted in the Holocaust.Rather,the issueishow our presentinter pretivehorizon,shaped asitinevitablyisbyeventsofthetwentiethcentury,im pinges uponthis ancientliterature.Put simply,the contributorsto this volume allrespondinonewayoranothertothequestion:Howhasthe historicalwebof events known as the Holocaust affected---or how should it affect-the waywe readthefoundingtextsofChristianity? Afewwordsabouttheveryterm"Holocaust"isinorder.Theterm isashort hand, in some waysinappropriate,wayof referring both to the officia~ state sponsored attempt to annihilate European Jewry by the National Socialist (Nazi) partyinGermanyduringthe 1930sand early1940sand to the unofficia~ yetsometimesequallydeadly,pogromsand lootingthattookplacein Nazi-oc cupiedterritories,especiallyincentral and eastern Europe.Theword Holocaust comes from the Greek translation (holocaustos) of the Hebrew word "olah; whichdesignatesinthe HebrewScriptures thewholeburntofferingthatissacri ficedto God. Current usage of the term came to prominence in the 1960sand wassolidified in the American imaginationbythe widelyseen television mini seriesfrom 1978,"TheHolocaust,"and morerecentlybytheUnitedStatesHolo caust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.Yetmany have objected to the termbeing applied,givenitsreligiousand sacrificialovertones,tothe murderof sixmillionJews,and one often findsthe term Shoah (Hebrew for"destruction") substitutedinstead. Wetend to associate the Holocaust with killing centers such asAuschwitz Birkenau and Treblinka, where together more than two million people were murdered,butitwouldmore properlyincludeaswelltheforcedmarches,roam ingdeathsquads,disease,and starvationthatcamewith the Nazipersecutionof Jews.It iscertainlytrue, of course,that many non-Jews died insimilar circum stances,and oftensidebysidewith Jews,yetit isalsotrue thatJewsand Judaism held a unique placein Naziideologyand weresingled outfor persecution in a waythatotherpolitical,ethnic, and religiousgroups werenot.Itisthisideologi calfreightplacedonJudaism,combinedwith thesheerscaleofthekillings(fully two-thirds of world Jewryand one-third of European Jewryperished between 1933and 1945),thatmakesthe Holocaustthe massiveand tragic phenomenon thatitis. Although countless volumes have been written on the Holocaust, and its philosophical, ethical, and theological implications have been explored from numerous perspectives,there isaconspicuous poverty of worksthatreflectex plicitlyand inasustainedmanneron the impactoftheHolocauston the prac ticeofbiblicalinterpretation.Thisimpactis,asthe rangeofessaysinthepresent volume show,vastand complex and isimpossible to put into asingle,summary statement.On theone hand,ourattentionisfocusedmorekeenlyon issuesthat havebeen raisedindependentlyofanyconsiderationofthe Holocaust.Thus,for INTRODUCTION XI example, the topics ofanti-Judaismin the Gospelsor the ambiguities of Paul's thinkingon God's continuingfaithfulness to Israelhavereceivedafair amount ofattentionin recent decades,and severaloftheessaysherewillrevisittheseis sues, albeit with the expressed intention of offering a distinctive engagement with the post-Holocaustmilieu.On the otherhand,there arecertainissuesand questionsthatarisefrom thequite specificeventsthatconstitutethe Holocaust. Forexample:Howdid NewTestamentscholarswhowerealsoNazipartymem bers dealwith the JewishidentityofJesus?How isthe objectivity striven for in historical criticism calledinto questionbythe realethical demands ofcontem porary Jewish-Christian relations? What is it about the erection of a cross at Auschwitzthatissocontroversial, and how might thatgiveus newinsight into the passion narrativesoftheGospels?Andwhatmightallthismean fortheolog icalinterpretation? Theseand otherissuesareraisedintheessaysthatfollow--essaysbyinterna tionally renownedscholars, aswellasbyyounger scholarswho bringfreshper spectivesand cutting-edgeinterpretivework.Thewriters hailfrom bothbiblical studies and from Jewishstudies, and the combinationof Jewishand Christian, maleand female,EuropeanandAmerican, makesforavigorous and diversecol lection of essays,united nonetheless by a passionate commitment to facing squarelytheethicalimplicationsofreading and writingafterthe Holocaust.
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