SCJR 18, no. 1 (2023): 1-2   

 

 

Robert W. Bleakney   

Evangelical Interpretation After Auschwitz 
 

(Atlanta: Hebraic Heritage Press, 2019), 392 pp. 

 

 

JOHN E. PHELAN, JR. 

jphelan@northpark.edu 

North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL 60625 

 

 

The Shoah changed everything. As the scope of the tragedy became clear, both 

Jewish and Christian thinkers struggled to make theological sense of the unabated 

cruelty and bloodlust, not only of Nazis but of the many willing collaborators. 

While Jewish religious leaders and theologians asked serious questions about the 

apparent silence of Israel’s God, some Christians began a painful reckoning with 

the abject failure of many if not most Christian leaders to support and defend the 

Jews at their most desperate hour of need. Many within the mainline Protestant and 

Roman Catholic communities also asked not only how millions of Christians could 

participate in the slaughter but how Christian theology might have contributed to 

it. A group of thinkers later called “Holocaust Theologians” studied, pondered, and 

agonized over these questions throughout the post-war era. Jews and Christians in 

the United States and Europe engaged one another as never before.  

This background is important, for while some Christians have continued this 

engagement, few Evangelicals have entered into this dialogue. Also, few have been 

willing to consider the potential anti-Jewish (if not antisemitic) character of their 

traditional theologies and their sacred texts. In recent years there have been fruitful, 

high-level conversations between Jewish and Evangelical leaders and academics, 

but little of this conversation appears to have made its way to ordinary Evangeli-

cals. It is not that Evangelicals were unmoved by the horror of the murder of 

6,000,000 Jews, but that many of them appear not to have considered how Christian 

theology and biblical interpretation may have contributed to hatred of Jews. Several 

factors have hindered this reckoning. At a very practical level, opportunities for 

connections with Jews are not as easy for Evangelicals in, say, Mississippi or North 

Dakota as they would be in New York or southeastern Florida. Some Jews are also 

justifiably wary of engaging Evangelicals, fearing that they will be seen as candi-

dates for conversion. Finally, Evangelicals’ native conservatism makes it difficult 

for them to consider that their historic understanding of their sacred texts and tra-

ditions could be wrong or harmful.  

Robert W. Bleakney, an Evangelical and an Associate Professor at Hebraic 

Christian College, knows this history. He is especially concerned with how little 



               

              Phelan: Bleakney’s Evangelical Interpretation After Auschwitz                            2 
 

 

               

    

Evangelicals and Jews have engaged one another and, especially, with how little 

Evangelical Christians appreciate Jews’ painful historical experiences with Chris-

tians. He is concerned that harmful stereotypes long critiqued and rejected within 

the Catholic and mainline Protestant communities endure within large segments of 

the Evangelical world. He demonstrates, for example, the startlingly anti-Jewish 

interpretations and readings within popular Evangelical study Bibles and attempts 

to redress such readings (193-202). It is as if these commentators have not grasped 

that their harsh language concerning “the Jews” refers not just to an ancient people 

but to a living and vulnerable community. 

Bleakney discusses the relationship between Evangelical Christianity and Ju-

daism, while also aiming to help Evangelicals understand both the nature of 

contemporary Judaism and Christianity’s Jewish roots. Although the two traditions 

went their separate ways, they share a common story, a common sacred text, and 

the worship of the one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is not to 

minimize the differences but to recognize a common heritage. Bleakney thinks this 

is especially important for Evangelicals to understand. Bleakney throughout the 

book shares his own engagement with and learning from a variety of Jewish schol-

ars and thinkers as a means to educate Evangelicals and encourage them to initiate 

their own conversations. 

This is a diverse book, addressing many topics and issues. It is less a sustained 

argument and more a series of essays and reflections. Some of these essays and 

reflections are stronger than others. It is an earnest book. The reader senses Bleak-

ney’s concern to speak to his fellow Evangelicals, to turn them away from 

caricatures and stereotypes and toward sympathy and understanding. There is a 

sense in which the reader is observing Bleakney’s own learning and his own grow-

ing consciousness and concern for his relationship with Jews and Judaism. There 

are few books of this nature by Evangelicals, and it represents an important starting 

point in the ongoing conversation. One hopes the conversation will continue to be 

refined and enriched by mutual understanding and even love. Robert Bleakney de-

serves our appreciation for making a start.