The Thought of Emil Fackenheim

The course will offer an introduction to the thought of Emil L. Fackenheim, who has been characterized as the most powerful and yet most controversial Jewish thinker to focus his attention on the Holocaust since 1945 (i.e., since the end of World War II). We will reflect on his position, and his claim that the post-Holocaust situation of humanity is best refracted through Judaism, Christianity, and philosophy. We will consider the full sweep of Fackenheim’s thought, but especially as it relates to the historical situation of Jews and Judaism, and also how this bears direct and deep implications — moral, political, theological, and even ontological — for philosophy, religion, and ultimately the entire human race in the wake of the Holocaust. And we will also reflect on how his thought changes the parameters which used to rule for dealing with radical evil in the dominant Western traditions, i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and philosophy — and in the case of Judaism, specifically contrasting him with Maimonides.