Abstract
Back in the early seventies two futurists introduced us to a fundamentally new reality with which religious ethics has yet adequately to grapple. Victor Ferkiss, a political scientist out of the Catholic tradition, and Hans Jonas, a social philosopher of Jewish background who escaped the Nazis, served warning that humankind had reached a new threshold in its evolutionary journey. Humanity was now standing on a threshold between Utopia and oblivion, as Buckminster Fuller has put it. The human community now faced a situation whose potential for destruction equalled its capacity for reaching new levels of creativity and human dignity. What path humanity would follow was a decision that rested with the next several generations. Neither direct divine intervention nor the arbitrary forces of nature would determine the ultimate outcome. Human choice was now more critical than ever in the past for creational survival. And the decision would have lasting impact, well beyond the lifespan of those who are destined to make it. It would, in fact, determine what forms of life will experience continued viability.
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Notes
Victor Ferkiss, The Future of Technological Civilization (New York: George Braziller, 1974), p.88.
Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984). Jonas has also reflected on the ethical implications of the Holocaust, but regrettably has never integrated these separate reflections.
See Hans Jonas, Mortality and Morality: A Search for the Good After Auschwitz (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1996).
and Hans Jonas, ‘The concept of God after Auschwitz: a Jewish voice’, Journal of Religion,January 1987: 143–157.
See John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, The Challenge of the Holocaust for Christian Theology (New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1982);
John T. Pawlikowski, ‘Christian Theological Concerns After the Holocaust’, in Eugene J. Fisher (ed.), Visions of the Other: Jewish and Christian Theologians Assess the Dialogue (New York/Mahwah: Paulist 1994), p.285;
and John T. Pawlikowski, ‘Christian Ethics and the Holocaust: A Dialogue with Post-Auschwitz Judaism’, Theological Studies (December 1988): 649–669.
Emil Fackenheim, The Jewish Return Into History (New York: Schocken Books, 1978), p.246.
See John T. Pawlikowski, ‘Uniqueness and Universality in the Holocaust: Some Ethical Reflections’, in Linda Bennett Elder, David L. Barr and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon (eds.), Biblical and Human, A Festschrift for John F, Priest (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996), pp.275–289.
Uriel Tal, ‘Forms of Pseudo-Religion in the German Kulturbereich Prior to the Holocaust’, Imannual 3 (1973–74): 69;
and Uriel Tal, Christians and Jews in Germany: Religion, Politics and Ideology in the Second Reich, 1870–1914 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975).
Irving Greenberg, ‘The Voluntary Covenant’, Perspectives #3 (New York: National Jewish Resource Center, 1982), p.15.
Irving Greenberg, ‘The Third Great Cycle in Jewish History’, Perspectives #1 (New York: National Jewish Resource Center, 1981), pp.24–25.
For the texts of Pope John Paul ll’s Encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) and the U.S. Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on the Economy, see David J. O’Brien and Thomas A. Shannon (eds.), Catholic Social thought: The Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll. NY: Orbis Books, 1992), pp.350–392; 572–680. For the text of the U.S. Bishops’ statement on the energy
see Hugh J. Nolan (ed.), Pastoral Letters of the United States Catholic Bishops, Vol.IV (1975–1983) (Washington: National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference, 1983), pp.438–463. For the text of the Canadian Bishops’ statement on the Canadian economy, see David M. Byers (ed.), General Introduction and Document Introductions by
John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Justice In the Marketplace: Collected Statement of the Vatican and the United States Catholic Bishops on Economic Policy, 1891–1984 (Washington: United States Catholic Conference, 1985), pp.480–491.
David Hartman, A Living Covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism (New York: Free Press, and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1985).
John T. Pawlikowski, ‘Co-Creators with a Compelling God’, Ecumenism (June 1999): 8–11.
Philip J. Heffier, The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture and Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993);
also see John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, ‘Theological Dimensions of an Ecological Ethic’, in Richard N. Fragomeni and John T. Pawlikowski (eds.), The Ecological Challenge: Ethical, Liturgical and Spiritual Responses (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1994), pp.39–51.
Stanley Hauerwas, ‘Jews and Christians Among the Nations’, Cross Currents (Spring 1981): 34.
Michael Ryan, ‘Hitler’s Challenge to the Churches: A Theological — Political Analysis of Mein Kampf’, in Franklin Littell and Hubert G. Locke (eds.), The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1974), pp.160–161.
Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God (New York: Harper & Row, 1974).
Clyde L. Manschreck, ‘Chruch-State Relations — A Question of Sovereignty’, in Clyde L. Manschreck and Barbara Brown Zikmund (eds.), The American Religious Experiment: Piety and Practicality (Chicago: Exploration Press, 1976), p.121.
Romano Guardini, Power and Responsibility (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1961), p.xiii.
Peter J. Haas, Morality After Auschwitz: The Radical Challenge (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988); also ‘The Morality of Auschwitz: Moral Language and the Nazi Ethic’, in Franklin Littell and others (eds.), Remembering For The Future, Vol.2 (Oxford: Pergamon, 1989), pp.1893–1902.
See Peter J. Haas, ‘Fare etica in un’eta di scienza’, in Emilio Baccarini and Lucy Thorson (eds.), Il Bene e Il Male Dopo Auschwitz: Implicazioni Etico-Theologiche per L’oggi (Milano: Paoline, 1998), p.176. An English version of this volume will appear soon from KTAV.
See Peter Hayes, Industry and Ideology: I.G. Farben in the Nazi Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
For more on the Catholic human rights tradition, See my articles ‘Human Rights in the Roman Catholic Tradition’, in Max Stackhouse (ed.) Selected Papers: The American Society of Christian Ethics 1979, 145–166 and ‘Liberal Democracy, Human Rights, and the Holocaust: The Political and Historical Context of Pope Pius XII’, Catholic International, October 1998, 454–458.
There were some individual Catholic leaders who did call for some reconciliation between Catholicism and the emerging liberal tradition. They generally were marginalized in the Catholic Church and in some cases left the Church entirely. See Thomas Bokenkotter, Church and Revolution: Catholics in the Struggle for Democracy and Social Justice (New York: Doubleday, An Image Book, 1998).
Nora Levin, The Holocaust (New York: Schocken, 1973), p.693.
Richard Lukas, Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation1939–1944 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986), p. 16.
Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, A Blessing To Each Other (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1996), p. 132.
Donald Dietrich, God and Humanity In Auschwitz: Jewish—Christian Relations and Sanctioned Murder (New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction, 1995), p.269.
See Gordon Zahn, German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars: A Study In Social Control (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1962).
Gordon Zahn, ‘Catholic Resistance? A Yes and a No’, in Franklin H. Littell and Hubert G. Locke (eds.), The German Church Struggle and The Holocaust (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1974), pp.234–235.
See J.L. Talmon, ‘European History Seedbed of the Holocaust’, Midstream (May 1973): 22–24.
See George Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements In Germany From the Napoleonic Wars Through the Third Reich (New York: New American Library, 1977).
Irving Greenberg, ‘Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity and Modernity after the Holocaust’, in Eva Fleischner (ed.), Auschwitz: Beginning of A New Era? (New York: KATV, 1977), p.17.
See David H. Hirsch, ‘Camp Music and Camp Songs: Szymon Laks and Aleksander Kulisiewicz’, in G. Jan Colijn and Marcia Sachs Littell (eds.), Confronting the Holocaust: A Mandate For The 21st Century (Lanham/New York/Oxford: University Press of America, 1997), pp.157–168.
See my essay, ‘The Vatican and the Holocaust: Putting We Remember In Context’, Dimensions 12:2, 11–16; also see Secretarist for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, Catholics Remember The Holocaust (Washington: United States Catholic Conference, 1998).
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Pawlikowski, J.T. (2001). Human Responsibility. In: Roth, J.K., Maxwell, E., Levy, M., Whitworth, W. (eds) Remembering for the Future. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-66019-3_72
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