A Shadow of Glory: Reading the New Testament after the Holocaust

Abstract

A Shadow of Glory: the Testament after the Holocaust, edited by Tod Linafelt. York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. 258. $95.95 (hardcover). ISBN 0415937930. $26.95 (paper). ISBN 0415937949. This excellent set of seventeen essays is the companion volume to Strange Fire: the Bible after the Holocaust, also edited by Linafelt, which dealt with interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (New York: York University Press, 2000). NT volume is divided into four sections, following an introduction by Linafelt: Part 1: in the History of Interpretation (Pamela Eisenbaum, The Christian Canon and the Problem of Antisemitism; Deborah Krause and Timothy K. Beal, Higher Criticism on Late Texts: Biblical Scholarship after the Holocaust; Susannah Heschel, Reading Jesus as Nazi; and Mark K. George, Shoah Consciousness and the Silence of American Christian Biblical Scholarship); Part 2: as Jews (Steven L. Jacobs, Blood on Our Heads: A Jewish Response to Saint Matthew; Richard L. Rubenstein, The Apostle and the seed of Abraham; and Jennifer L. Koosed, Double Bind: Sacrifice in the Epistle to the Hebrews); Part 3: as Christians (Walter Brueggemann, Reading from the Day 'In Between'; Margie Tolstoy, Woman as Witness in Post-Holocaust Perspective; Lloyd Gaston, New Testament Theology after the Holocaust: Exegetical Responsibilities and Canonical Possibilities; Tania Oldenhage, Reading the Cross at Auschwitz: Memories; and Rolf Rendtorff, Did Christianity Die at Auschwitz?); and Part 4: Jews and Gentiles, in the Testament and Today (John Dominic Crossan, The Passion after the Holocaust; Craig C. Hill, Restoring the Kingdom to Israel: Luke-Acts and Christian Supersessionism; James D. G. Dunn, The Jew Paul and His Meaning for Israel; Luke Timothy Johnson, Reading after the Holocaust: A Testament Scholar Responds to Emil Fackenheim; and Gary A. Phillips, The Killing Fields of Matthew's Gospel). Only three of the essays, or versions of them, have been published previously (Heschel, Dunn, Phillips), while several of the authors in this volume also contributed to the earlier collection on the Hebrew Bible (Beal, Brueggemann, Rendtorff, Jacobs, Koosed, Rubenstein, Linafelt, and George). cover art is detail of Marc Chagall's Drawing of Jesus Appearing in the Sky and Worshippers. detail includes no Jesus, but flying fish and faces of worshipers looking in different directions. book's title alludes to Heb 8:5 and 10:1, which is often read as presenting the Judaism before Christ as shadow of glory, a religion that was useful in fallen and limited way, but must now be abandoned in light of the fullness of Christ. From that allusion, Linafelt defines the collection as follows: The present volume looks out from this shameful shadow back at the texts of the Testament and explores how those texts might be read differently in the light of the Holocaust (p. ix). Included are both issues that can and have been raised independently of any explicit focus on the (such as anti-Judaism in Paul, the Gospels, and Acts) and those which arise from the specific events of the (such as the membership of some NT scholars in the Nazi party). aim is that all NT scholarship should develop more consciously explicit post-Holocaust hermeneutics. Should it be realized, this aim will change and vitalize our field of study. Toward that goal, Linafelt asks the important question: How is the objectivity striven for in historical criticism called into question by the real ethical demands of contemporary Jewish-Christian relations? (p. x). Several of the essays recognize that objectivity is impossible and claim it is dangerous. Yet nonpositivistic historical criticism is an essential part of the ethical task. So too is the effort to reckon with the traditional and contemporary impact of the texts, apart from issues of historicity. …