Grace in Auschwitz: A Holocaust Christology

by Jean-Pierre Fortin

The postmodern human condition and relationship to God were forged in response to Auschwitz. Christian theology must now address the challenge posed by the Shoah. Grace in Auschwitz offers a constructive theology of grace that enables twenty-first-century Westerners to relate meaningfully to the Christian tradition in the wake of the Holocaust and unprecedented evil. Through narrative theological testimonial history, the first part articulates the human condition and relationship to God experienced by concentration camp inmates. The second part draws from the lives and works of Simone Weil, Dorothee Slle, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alfred Delp, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Sergei Bulgakov to propose and apply a coherent kenotic model enabling the transposition of the Christian doctrine of grace into categories strongly correlating with the experience of Auschwitz survivors. This model centers on the vulnerable Jesus Christ, a God who takes on the burden of the human condition and freely suffers alongside and for human beings. In and through the person of Jesus, God is made present and active in the midst of spiritual desolation and destitution, providing humanity and solace to others.

315 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hard but powerful read. This book summarizes the horror that is the Holocaust. After devoting the first half to Holocaust survival narratives, he employs a kenotic Christology and a survey of grace as taught by, for example, Luther, Calvin, Barth, and Rahner, he persuasively argues that God was in fact present in and through human beings who were moved by God in various ways to be human to others. Though one can quibble about a detail or two, the sheer weight and power of this book warrants a read for anyone that desires to understand Christology, anthropology, and how the light of Christ applies to immense suffering and horror.