Book Description

Long Night's Journey Into Day is a stimulating and provocative attempt to deal with the impact and meaning of the Holocaust within contemporary Christian and Jewish thought. To Jews, the Holocaust is the most terrible happening in their history, but it must also be seen as a Christian event. The Eckardts call for a radical rethinking of the Christian faith in the light of the Holocaust, examining such issues as the relation between human and demonic culpability, the charge of God's guilt, and the reality of forgiveness. They clarify the theological meaning of the Holocaust and the responsibility that must be borne for it by the Christian Church, and discuss possible responses to it as exemplified in the writings of selected modern theologians and church councils. This enlarged and revised edition takes into account new topics and developments, including the issue of Austrian responsibility for the Holocaust, the significance and aftermath of Bitburg, and antisemitism in German feminism. More detailed attention is also given to other modern genocides and occasions of humanly-caused mass death. Additional literary, historical, and religious works are considered and appropriate quotations incorporated. The new edition also includes a revised preface, an updated bibliography and two new appendices.