Laurie Mcrobert

Emil Fackenheim's Quest: from Philosophy to Prophetic Theology Laurie Mcrobert

Emil Fackenheim?s Quest: From Philosophy to Prophetic Theology constitutes a comprehensive study of the Jewish thinker Emil L. Fackenheim who lived between 1916 and 2003. The study begins with extracts of letters and articles which he wrote as early as 1939 and ends with his writing of To Mend the World published in 1982. It starts with the new thinking movement in Judaism, considers the mediaeval responses to prophecy and philosophy and includes the prophetic experience as described by modern Jewish thinkers. This sets the stage for Fackenheim?s quest. His writings clearly track the important philosophical and theological questions that preoccupy him during this time. These questions reveal his subjective concerns which focus on what becomes a pivotal question for him: Has God revealed Himself once more in history? One of the ways that Fackenheim responds to what he believes to be a revelation from God is in a prophetic way with the 614th commandment to Jews ?Thou shalt not give Hitler Posthumous victories?. The book?s themes deal primarily with the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the firewall that neither traditional philosophy nor Christianity can transcend unless they put aside their grandiose theories of a perennial philosophical Truth, and of the Christ conquering event of death and thus evil. The Christ event, Fackenheim argues can no longer be seen as an overcoming of death (evil) since Christ never had to encounter the radical evil of the Holocaust. What would Christ a Jew have done during the Holocaust?save his people from the gas chambers, or die with them? Fackenheim is concerned for the Jewish people?s homeland Israel. His epiphany during the six day War includes the fact that Israel as a state is fragile and that Jews, religious or secular, whether they believe or not in God must join forces to protect it.