We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
A Visit to Auschwitz
Arrestato guardiano del campo di concentramento di Auschwitz
Ever since I first learned of the full horror of the Holocaust when I was a freshman at the University of Minnesota I have had a kind of obsessive fascination with it. I’ve studied every aspect of Hitler and the Third Reich and about the philosophy that led to their “Final Solution.” In fact, for several years, I taught a course at Bethel University entitled “Theology After Auschwitz.” To get on the inside of this unthinkable horror, I would have the class not only read books, but also watch films and hear from living survivors. My conviction has always been that, after the Crucifixion of the Son of God, the Holocaust represents the greatest expression of evil in human history. For this reason, I believe it ought to serve as a criterion by which we measure the authenticity of our theology, and especially of our thinking on the problem of evil. “If you cannot speak it standing next to the mass grave of gassed children,” I have often said, “it is inauthentic to ever speak it.” In my view, all the flowery statements about God controlling all things for his glory become hollow nonsense in the vicinity of gassed children.
In just a few weeks I have the opportunity of fulfilling a several decades long dream of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau. It will take place at the end of several weeks of kingdom teaching in Austria and Switzerland. I’ll be accompanied and supported by my wife Shelley and my kingdom co-workers, Greg and Marcia Erickson. I believe the experience will be powerful as we reflect on theological matters with the above criterion in full view.
To make the most of this visit, I’m wondering if any of you have ever visited these memorials? If so, do you have any recommendations for us? For example, should we view these memorials with a tour guide? And if you think we should have a guided tour, is there one you can recommend? Please send any information you think would be helpful to marcia@reknew2015.wpengine.com.
Thanks so much for your help. If it comes to mind, please pray that in both my speaking ministry and in our memorial visits, God will accomplish in us and through us all that he intends.
Sincerely,
Greg Boyd
Category: General
Tags: Auschwitz, Blueprint Worldview, Calvinism, Europe, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Related Reading
Analogies For Understanding Prayer
God is all-powerful, which means he owns all the “say-so” there is. But when he decided to populate the creation with free agents, he gave each human various units of “say-so.” [Click here for yesterday’s post on “say-so.”] We each have a certain amount of power to affect what comes to pass by our choices.…
Henry’s Mom: Did God Author This?
Many of you were touched last month when we featured some reflections on little Henry’s death. Well, Henry’s mother Jess has started a blog to process through some of her thoughts and we wanted to share this amazing piece with all of you. Jess thinks ahead to the time when her two-year-old daughter will start…
Our Beautiful, Nightmarish World
The Bible consistently proclaims that the creation reflects the glory of God. To me, the truth of this proclamation is undeniable. When I was younger I several times went on three-week solo backpacking trips into the mountainous forests of Montana. If gazing at the star studded sky on a moonless night at the peak of…
Storming the Gates of Hell
Jesus said: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18) To understand Jesus’ teaching here, there are a few things you should know. First, “Hades” was the standard term for the underworld, which means that Jesus was probably referring to the whole of the Satanic kingdom.…
Confronting Divine Determinism
Part of the fallen human condition inclines us to shirk our moral responsibility and accept that everything is predetermined, whether by God, the gods, fate, or blind chance. Various forms of determinism have been prevalent in most primitive religions, in much ancient philosophy, in most forms of Islam and even, most surprisingly, in much traditional…
Is Your Christianity Shaped by Plato or the Bible?
The Timaeus is a work that Plato wrote that addresses the questions: “What is that which always is and has no becoming, and what is that which becomes but never is?” (Tim. 28a)? These questions contain one of the most influential – and, in my opinion, one of the most disastrous – philosophical ideas of…