Doubts about the nature, character or even the very existence of God have arisen throughout history during various natural disasters, diseases and the like. But with the exterminating mass crime represented by the Shoah, with the previously unimaginable crimes committed by one of God’s creatures against others, the questions “What kind of God allows such a thing?” Or, more harshly, “If He existed, would He allow it?” became more competent and louder than before. The theological doctrines of different religions are trying to come to copy with the challenge presented to them by the extent of suffering in the Second World War: how to understand that “episode” in view of the historical plan of the good God; what role can systematic persecutions, camps, and suffering play in Providence. Or, on the other hand: how to justify God in the face of obvious and ungodly and inhuman (in)deeds; if they do not challenge him, is it the same God that was believed in until then?

The theme of this year’s commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be precisely whether something has changed or “innovated” in theological thought: whether at all, how and how successfully it thematized the status of God in view of the Holocaust experience.

Program