Modern Christian Theology, Sermons, Jesus Christ, Holocaust - Study & Teaching, Sermons - Christianity
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Overview
What does Jesus have to do with the millions who died and the countless people who suffer to this day because of the Holocaust? In Jesus and the Holocaust, scripture scholar Joel Marcus finds meaning in the relationship between persecution of these millions of Jews and the crucifixion of the Jewish man named Jesus who suffered and died on the cross two thousand years ago. Marcus, a Jew raised in Chicago who later converted to Christianity, puts us in touch with the inhumane treatment and murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust, and with the horrible suffering of Jesus. Originally presented in a Good Friday service - the day Christians reflect on the meaning of Jesus' death - Marcus's simple, stirring language and his use of images and poetry in this series of homilies evoke anger, tears, and warmth. Readers are surprised by the unexpected healing offered in this union of Jesus and the Holocaust.This emotional and personal meditation explores how the suffering of Jesus relates to the suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust, by the Jewish-Christian biblical scholar Joel Marcus. 8 illustrations. Size A. 128 pp. 15,000 print.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Collected in this little book are Joel Marcus's meditations, delivered originally on Good Friday, 1995, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland, examining the connections between Christ's death and the deaths of six million Jews that occurred more than 2000 years later. Marcus, an American Jew by birth who in his early 20s converted to Christianity, reflects upon scriptural passages, poetry, photographs and Holocaust narratives to explore what for him is the "mysterious relation" between Christ's crucifixion and the Holocaust. Marcus, a lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University of Glasgow, is well aware of the dangerous ground he treads. Among the questions he asks in these meditations are: Was the Holocaust God's will? Can we still believe in a good God after such a horror? How can we forgive those who perpetrated these awful crimes? Marcus approaches the answers to his questions by pointing to the redemptive act of Jesus, who forgave his murderers. In the words of a 19th-century rabbi, God himself suffers when the innocent suffer. Building on this idea, Marcus notes that "...God suffers in all human misery, and in the brokenness of the world." And Marcus points to the "mystery of God's own suffering in the suffering of his Son" as a way of approaching the mystery of the suffering of the innocents. His own understandings of the ways that God works in the world are wrought out of the fabric of deep struggle to reconcile the answers offered by both Judaism and Christianity in these religions' attempts to justify the ways of God to man.Publishers Weekly -
Collected in this little book are Joel Marcus's meditations, delivered originally on Good Friday, 1995, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland, examining the connections between Christ's death and the deaths of six million Jews that occurred more than 2000 years later. Marcus, an American Jew by birth who in his early 20s converted to Christianity, reflects upon scriptural passages, poetry, photographs and Holocaust narratives to explore what for him is the "mysterious relation" between Christ's crucifixion and the Holocaust. Marcus, a lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University of Glasgow, is well aware of the dangerous ground he treads. Among the questions he asks in these meditations are: Was the Holocaust God's will? Can we still believe in a good God after such a horror? How can we forgive those who perpetrated these awful crimes? Marcus approaches the answers to his questions by pointing to the redemptive act of Jesus, who forgave his murderers. In the words of a 19th-century rabbi, God himself suffers when the innocent suffer. Building on this idea, Marcus notes that "...God suffers in all human misery, and in the brokenness of the world." And Marcus points to the "mystery of God's own suffering in the suffering of his Son" as a way of approaching the mystery of the suffering of the innocents. His own understandings of the ways that God works in the world are wrought out of the fabric of deep struggle to reconcile the answers offered by both Judaism and Christianity in these religions' attempts to justify the ways of God to man. (Apr.)Book Details
Published
April 14, 1997
Publisher
The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Pages
128
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780385487658