Not "any Tom, Dick, and Harry": Abraham Heschel and Martin Buber on the Holocaust

Abraham Heschel’s last book includes a critique of Martin Buber, suggesting that Buber insists that God conform to his understanding of what constitutes justice in human history. This article explores whether Heschel's judgment is justifiable, and whether there is really so much distance betwee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in religion
Main Author: Oppenheim, Michael D. 1946- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage [2015]
In: Studies in religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Heschel, Abraham Joshua 1907-1972 / Buber, Martin 1878-1965 / Jewish philosophy / Theodicy / Jews
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
BH Judaism
TK Recent history
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Abraham Heschel’s last book includes a critique of Martin Buber, suggesting that Buber insists that God conform to his understanding of what constitutes justice in human history. This article explores whether Heschel's judgment is justifiable, and whether there is really so much distance between these two prominent modern Jewish philosophers on the topic of theodicy. The conclusion is that Heschel's critique was both correct and incorrect. At the end of their lives, the Holocaust brought both Jewish philosophers to revolutionary, that is to say, unanticipated and unwanted, insights in their struggle with that Tremendum, which is the Holocaust.
ISSN:0008-4298
Contains:Enthalten in: Studies in religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0008429815595809