Christian Theology After the Shoah (review)

104 SHOFAR Winter 1995 Vol. 13, No.2 substantial, thoughtful essay that comments on current scholariytrends and places each collection of essays in a larger context. Harry Zohn Department ofGermanic and Slavic Languages Brandeis University Christian Theology Mter the Shoah, by James F. Moore. Studies in the Sboab, Volume VII. Lanham: University Press of America, 1993. 189 pp. .$44.50. JamesF. Moore, a Lutheran theologian from Valparaiso University, has been an important contributor to the contemporary reformulation of Christianity's theological approach to Judaism and the Jewish People for the past decade. He has especially emphasized the centrality of the Sboab to this effort. Picking up the challenge to Christian theology laid down by the noted German Catholic scholar Johannes Metz, who has argued that all theology today must integrate the reality of the Sboab into its deliberations and formulations in a foundational way, Moo're attempts a reconstruction not only of the content of doing theology, but also of the metbod. It is in the latter area that his book shows the most creativity whether one agrees or not with some of its basic conclusions. It is in the methodological area that Moore in fact feels most previous efforts at a post-Sboab Christian theology have fallen short despite much admirable development in terms of content. Moore has opted for Midrasb as his basic interpretive tool in constructing a post-Sboab Christian theology and, in particular, for incorporating central New Testament texts into such a theology. Such Midrashic interpretation has a history in Christianity, having been employed by many of the Church Fathers such as Justin, Ignatius, and Irenaeus. Its roots ultimately lie in the Pharisaic/rabbinic notion of Oral Torah. If there is an incompleteness about Moore's analysis at this point, it is due to his failure to link his methodology to the Catholic/Orthodox sense of "tradition" as a source of biblical re-interpretation. This may reflect his Protestant heritage. In his application of the Midrashic method to traditional Christian teaching Moore elects to focus on the Passion Narratives (particularly the image of Jews that they convey) because of the central role these texts ha~e played historically in shaping the classical Christian theology and the Book Reviews 105 Jewish People as well as Christian identity itself. Focusing on the Jesus of the "Last Supper" narratives, the Jesus of the Trial sequence, and the accounts of Jesus on the Cross, Moore tries to show how the Midrashic method helps us see the basic story of Holy Week as one in which the Jewish Jesus remains to the end very much integral to the community of Israel. Moore also subjects the most distinctive of Christian biblical textsthose which proclaim Jesus' resurrection-to the Midrashic methodology. For him this results in an understanding of the resurrected Jesus as the supreme example for Christians of the post-Shoah obligation for rescue. Jesus, Moore insists, should not be viewed within the context of a postShoah Christology primarily through the lens of victimhood, allied with the Jewish and other victims of the Nazis. Rather the stress should be given to Jesus as rescuer. Establishing any direct linkage between the sufferings of Jesus and the victims of the Shoah Moore regards as not merely "insensitive " but downright "obscene." This is certainly an exciting and compelling vision presented by Moore in terms of textual analysis. While I think interpreting the central texts of the Christian biblical tradition only in terms of rescue is too limited, he has nonetheless added a potentially enriching dimension to a fully developed post-Shoah Christology that can truly acknowledge the continuing validity and meaning of the Jewish covenant. If his perspective is to gain support outside the potentially sympathetic core of Christian scholars already committed to the dialogue with Jews, he will need to relate his choice of the Midrashic method to the wider discussion of method currently underway within biblical and theological circles, offering some sound arguments why this particular method in the end ought to be preferred over presently existing options. At one point in his argumentation Moore makes mention of my own interpretation of Christology, largely rooted in the Incarnation. In his perspective a focus...