A Biblical Theology of Judaeo-Christian Convivence. The Contribution of Erich Zenger towards a Redefinition of Interreligious Relations in the Context of the Memory of the Shoa

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Rainer Kampling
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259161267

Zenger represents a commemorative culture that is biblically grounded. This commemorative culture transfers the past into the present to receive a criterion for a responsible coexistence. He understands memory as authentic instruction that necessarily leads towards a reinvention of theology itself and therefore to a redefinition of interfaith relations. His contribution for this redefinition, which is always under the banner of the remembrance of the shoa, is of extreme importance, not only in the scientific theological context, but also in churchly- societal interdependencies. It offers new starting points for the Judaeo-Christian Dialog. Promise and fulfilment, trinity and federal theology mark key terms in Zengers scientific work. The present project will analyse to what extent these concepts were made fruitful for the Judaeo-Christian Dialog by Zenger. The project will try to demonstrate how Zenger handled inner-Jewish concepts of memory and history in his scientific work. The novelty done here is the attempt to filter how Zengers biblical theology has to be analysed in the light of the memory of the Shoa. Therefore his localisation in the different inner-jewish debates on memory will be analysed. This interdiciplinary work pays attention to the biblical-theological thesis and argumentations of Zenger and combines them with the findings of cultural studies on the memorial discourses. Potential synergies and interdependencies will be shown. The influence of the Jewish as well as Christian positions of the remembrance of the Shoa towards Zengers theology cannot be overrated. We have to reconnect Zengers biblical-theological work towards a possible renewal of inter-religious questions to these positions and evaluate them in the light of the development of his theology. Furthermore we have to qualify the high standard of Zengers theology by contextualising it to the development of the discussion of the Shoa to show how biblical theology and memorial culture can participate and develop on each other. The scientific work of Erich Zenger offers many starting points for the theology as well as for church-societal contexts to steadily challenge the inter-religious relations and to redefine them. The project will show, analyse, and rethink these starting points using the mentioned methods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Ilse Müllner