Jonas and Buber
Hans Jonas wrote “The Concept of God after Auschwitz” to rethink this central question: how can we still believe in this being after the Holocaust?
What is God
According to Genesis 1, God created the world in this many days.
What is 6 days (on the 7th he rested)
some Gnostic Christians emphasized that God could have both these aspects
What is God the Father and God the Mother
Levinas calls suffering that cannot be explained or justified by reason or purpose this.
What is "useless suffering"?
This term was used in medieval Christian Europe to describe Jews as literal embodiments of evil.
What is the Devil Incarnal?
In “Religion and Reality,” Buber argues that true religion is not about doctrines or rituals, but about this kind of direct, mutual relationship.
What is the I-Thou relationship
Adam and Eve use these leaves to cover themselves
What are fig leaves
Pagels studies these texts that were not included in the canonical Bible because they offered alternative views of God and salvation.
What are Gnostic gospels
Levinas critiques traditional theodicy by arguing that the disproportion between suffering and any attempt to justify it was glaringly evident in this historical event.
What is the Holocaust
This medieval image depicted Jews suckling from a sow, symbolizing their association with the devil.
What is the "Judensau"?
In “The Concept of God after Auschwitz,” Jonas proposes that God voluntarily limited this divine attribute in order to make space for human freedom and the unfolding of creation.
What is omnipotence
Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from this specific tree.
What is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
Some Gnostic writings depict the God of Genesis as both nurturing and judging, combining masculine and feminine traits to address this tension.
What is the balance between justice and mercy?
According to Levinas, when we encounter someone who suffers, we are called to take on this.
What is ethical responsibility
Trachtenberg argues that the belief in Jews as devil's children led to these types of accusations.
What are blood libels and ritual murder accusations?
Buber contrasts genuine encounters with God to situations where humans turn God into an abstract concept or object—what he calls this kind of relationship.
What is the I-It relationship
By placing the Tree of Knowledge in the garden, God establishes this essential condition for authentic human morality
What is free will
Pagels argues that early Christian debates over God’s gender were not just theological, but also influenced by this kind of social and political concerns.
What is patriarchal authority
Useless suffering reveals the vulnerability and this of human beings, according to Levinas.
What is passivity
According to Trachtenberg, the repeated association of Jews with the Devil helped justify these kinds of actions against them.
What are persecutions, expulsions, and legal restrictions?
For Buber, every true I–Thou relationship—whether with a person, nature, or art—is ultimately a meeting with this eternal presence.
What is the Eternal Thou
Genesis 1:27 says humans were created “in the image of God.” This Hebrew phrase describes that divine likeness.
What is tselem Elohim?
The Gnostic scholar's Gospel of Truth argued God worshipped by most Christians—the creator God—was actually a lesser divine being, merely an image of the true, higher God.
Who is Valentinus?
Suffering that cannot be explained or given purpose forces us to confront this aspect of human life.
What is vulnerability
Trachtenberg concludes that these medieval beliefs about Jews laid a foundation for this broader historical phenomenon
What is modern anti-semitism?