The Banality of Good and Evil: Moral Lessons from the Shoah and Jewish Tradition

by David R. Blumenthal

People who helped exterminate Jews during the shoah (Hebrew for "holocaust") often claimed that they only did what was expected of them. Intrigued by hearing the same response from individuals who rescued Jews, David R. Blumenthal proposes that the notion of ordinariness used to characterize nazi evil is equally applicable to goodness. In this provocative book, Blumenthal develops a new theory of human behavior that identifies the social and psychological factors that foster both good and evil behavior.

Drawing on lessons primarily from the shoah but also from well-known obedience and altruism experiments, My Lai, and the civil rights movement, Blumenthal deftly interweaves insights from psychology, history, and social theory to create a new way of looking at human behavior. Blumenthal identifies the factors ― social hierarchy, education, and childhood discipline―that shape both good and evil attitudes and actions.

Considering how our religious and educational institutions might do a better job of encouraging goodness and discouraging evil, he then makes specific recommendations for cultivating goodness in people, stressing the importance of the social context of education. He reinforces his ideas through stories, teachings, and case histories from the Jewish tradition that convey important lessons in resistance and goodness.

Appendices include the ethical code of the Israel Defense Forces, material on non-violence from the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center, a suggested syllabus for a Jewish elementary school, and a list of prosocial sources on the Web, as well as a complete bibliography.

If people can commit acts of evil without thinking, why can't even more commit acts of kindness? Writing with power and insight, Blumenthal shows readers of all faiths how we might replace patterns of evil with empathy, justice, and caring, and through a renewed attention to moral education, perhaps prevent future shoahs.

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

David R. Blumenthal, Jay and Leslie Cohen Professor of Judaic Studies. Professor Blumenthal took his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He teaches and writes on constructive Jewish theology, medieval Judaism, Jewish mysticism, and holocaust studies. His previous published works include numerous scholarly articles, reviews, and eleven books including the two volume Understanding Jewish Mysticism (1978, 1982), God at the Center, (Harper and Row, 1988; reprinted Jason Aronson, 1994; translated as Dieu au coeur, 2002), Facing the Abusing God: A Theology of Protest (Westminster / John Knox, 1993), and The Banality of Good and Evil: Moral Lessons from the Shoah and Jewish Tradition (Georgetown University Press: 1999). His most recent book is Philosophic Mysticism: Essays in Rational Religion, 2007. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Religion.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 1 out of 5]

The useful message in The Banality of Good and Evil was that ethical choices are not something left to epic moments. Rather, they are the result of daily practice and intentions, which create habits and worldviews that come to the fore during high-stakes events. But for all that, his moral compass is misaligned. The upright choices during the Holocaust are so clear as to be uninteresting. But the author applies the wrong ethical gloss to a similar situation where the parties are reversed - in the Biblical story where the Israelites destroy Jericho (killing every person and animal inside before sacking and burning the city), the author praises as moral the lowborn woman who hid the Israelite spies and therefore enabled the destruction. That sort of uncritical tribalism, on display throughout the book, really undercut any claims to the moral high ground.