On the occasion of a study seminar that will bring together North American and European Dominican theologians in Istanbul, in dialogue with local thinkers, we would like to offer to a wider audience the fruit of our reflections on a crucial issue today: God, the victims and global violence.
To the believers, for Christians, in particular because of original sin, the world is an object of suspicion. But Jewish tradition, first and foremost, reminds us that “this” world is the locus of divine creation, justice, and redemption too; God is eminently the Lord of History, and in this respect the brutal violence that characterizes our times calls, even for the believer, the whole traditional concept of God into question.
How can a silent and seemingly powerless God be a Savior?
May we say that God, as a self-limiting omnipotence in the face of evil, forces us to rethink all our relationships (interpersonal, between peoples, and between humanity and creation) in terms of respectful self-limitation?
Even more: might we venture to argue that with the appearance of human beings, God’s destiny, by free and sovereign choice (omnipotence unfolding in apparent impotence), comes to rest in the hands of human beings?
Could we assume the need for a “post-Auschwitz/Gaza theology” that integrates ethical reflection, placing human responsibility rather than the concept of the divine at the center of its concerns?
Here are some topics for discussion that we feel are essential, which we would like to share with you.