On the Side of the Angels
Ethics and Post-Holocaust Spirituality
By (author) M.L. Baird
The Holocaust demands a rethinking of spirituality, both human and Christian. Traditional definitions of spirituality that focus on the human capacity for self-transcendence in relation to an ultimate horizon of meaning, whether or not that ultimate horizon is called ‘God’, are inadequate after the Holocaust to the degree that they make ethical responsibility a secondary consideration. Because the unthinkable has, in fact, happened, a contemporary spirituality must locate ethical responsibility for the other at the heart of human subjectivity and self-transcendence. The extreme suffering of the incarcerated and murdered, as well as the ethical engagement of the rescuers cry out for a newly articulated spirituality that defines self-transcendence primarily as ethical responsibility. This study also contributes to a contemporary discussion situated at the nexus of philosophy and spirituality. This discussion seeks to characterize spirituality by using terms other than the traditional categories of being. Such an approach may reveal the contours and dynamics of a spirituality springing from the ethical consideration of the other. This study defines spirituality as fundamentally self-transcending ethical engagement in which the subject ‘enacts’ himself or herself into the fullness of his or her humanity. This new perspective stresses ethical engagement over the ontologically-based conceptual categories found in traditional philosophical or theological anthropologies.
The Holocaust demands a rethinking of spirituality, both human and Christian. Traditional definitions of spirituality that focus on the human capacity for self-transcendence in relation to an ultimate horizon of meaning, whether or not that ultimate horizon is called ‘God’, are inadequate after the Holocaust to the degree that they make ethical responsibility a secondary consideration. Because the unthinkable has, in fact, happened, a contemporary spirituality must locate ethical responsibility for the other at the heart of human subjectivity and self-transcendence. The extreme suffering of the incarcerated and murdered, as well as the ethical engagement of the rescuers cry out for a newly articulated spirituality that defines self-transcendence primarily as ethical responsibility. This study also contributes to a contemporary discussion situated at the nexus of philosophy and spirituality. This discussion seeks to characterize spirituality by using terms other than the traditional categories of being. Such an approach may reveal the contours and dynamics of a spirituality springing from the ethical consideration of the other. This study defines spirituality as fundamentally self-transcending ethical engagement in which the subject ‘enacts’ himself or herself into the fullness of his or her humanity. This new perspective stresses ethical engagement over the ontologically-based conceptual categories found in traditional philosophical or theological anthropologies.
- By (author) M.L. Baird
Other Titles in this Series
Jacob Frank’s ‘Book of the Words of the Lord’
Mystical Automythography, Religious Nihilism and the Messianic Vision of Freedom as a Realizationof Myth and Metaphor
Volume 31
Spiritual Awakening
The Hidden Key to Peace and Security, Just and Sustainable Economics, A Responsible European Union
Volume 16
Seeing the Seeker. Explorations in the Discipline of Spirituality
A Festschrift for Kees Waaijman on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday
Volume 19
Dialogical Transformation
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Volume 25
Modernity, Melancholy and Predestination
Cultural Historical, Philosophical and Psychoanalytical Perspectives on the Modern Religious Subject
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The Spiritual Tradition in Eastern Christianity
Ascetic Psychology, Mystical Experience, and Physical Practices
Volume 26
Seeing Marguerite in the Mirror
A Linguistic Analysis of Porete's «Mirror of Simple Souls»
Volume 21
Being Seen in God
(Human Hiddenness and) Kierkegaard’s Call to Gaze in the Mirror of the Word
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