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Document Details :

Title: Christian Biblical Spiritualities during the Holocaust - Bonhoeffer and Kentenich
Author(s): ASTELL, Ann
Journal: Studies in Spirituality
Volume: 13    Date: 2003   
Pages: 45-62
DOI: 10.2143/SIS.13.0.504588

Abstract :
All Christian spiritualities are ‘biblical’ because they entail imitation of Jesus Christ as He is portrayed in the Gospels and are nourished by meditation on the Sacred Scriptures. Challenged to respond to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews and to the Nazi attempt to ‘De-Judaicize’ the Bible, Christians turned to the Word of God for guidance. Under the pressure of the Holocaust, they learned to read the Bible in new ways. That transformed understanding of the Scriptures generated in turn new forms of life, new schools of holiness. An examination of the lives of two Christian leaders of World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Father Joseph Kentenich, shows the close connection between biblical interpretation and spiritual formation at the dawn of the postmodern era.

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