Milczenie Boga: przykłady żydowskiej i chrześcijańskiej teologii Holocaustu (Paul van Buren i Richard L. Rubenstein)

When considering the causes of secularization in the Western societies, one must mention sociological and political consequences of both the World War II and Holocaust. Extermination of the Jewish nation prompted raising the question of “why did God allow Auschwitz?” Many Jewish and Christian theologians attempted to explain the moral collapse in the time of Holocaust. Part of them was related to the so-called Death of God theology, the theological movement which interpreted a radical secularization of the Western culture in many ways. The article discusses theological reflections of the Christian theologian Paul van Buren and the Jewish thinker Richard L. Rubenstein. They are considered to belong to the movement of the Death of God theology, though in both cases such classification is not justified. Both interpret Holocaust in the perspective of God’s silence, and both search for new notions and meanings for God in the secular world after Auschwitz.