Eschatological Reconciliation and the Shoah: Towards an Eschatology Post‐Auschwitz

How can Christian eschatology conceive of reconciliation after the Shoah without violating the victims' dignity or offering cheap grace to perpetrators? To venture an answer, the author engages with Johann Baptist Metz's ‘theology after Auschwitz’, Hans Urs von Balthasar's hope for universal salvation, and Emmanuel Levinas's ethics of the other to propose an eschatology that centres on the victims' agency in forgiveness while maintaining God's patient mercy waiting for all. The article tackles an urgent eschatological question and demonstrates pastoral sensitivity in accessible prose, together with valuable insights and a helpful summary of German theological contributions on this topic after the council.