Book Description A Catholic theologian ponders the symbolism of Holy Week in light of the Holocaust.
"What could Ash Wednesday mean after Auschwitz?" Tenebrae (Latin: "darkness"), a prayer service between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, commemorates the time Jesus spent in the tomb. It is a fitting and potent symbol for the moral darkness of the Holocaust, when the lives of six million Jews were snuffed out—many of them within earshot of Christian churches. After sixty years, the question remains: What responsibility do Christians still bear to rethink their symbols and theologies in light of this horror?
In Tenebrae Theresa Sanders takes up this challenge. Counterpoising the liturgies of Ash Wednesday and Holy Week with stories from the Warsaw Ghetto and the death camps, she challenges the tendency of Christians to rush quickly from Good Friday to the "happy ending" of Easter. In Tenebrae, we are called to confront the mystery of evil, the ongoing suffering of God, and the need to join our prayers and efforts for the transformation of the world.
Theresa Sanders is associate professor of theology at Georgetown University. Her previous books include Celluloid Saints.
