Theology as Ethics: Emmanuel Levinas as Jewish Post-Holocaust Thinker

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 5. This paper is grounded in four Levinasian categories. I argue that Levinas's category of being, il y a, is inspired by the experience of the Holocaust. I explore his thought as a search for liberation from the "fascism of being" and describe identity-acquisition (hypostasis) as the (first) human answer to il y a. The Holocaust taught Levinas that identity-acquisition can only bring about partial liberation. Only the dedication to the face of the suffering other promises real liberation. In this perspective, we can understand the God-idea of Levinas as a critique of the Gott mit uns of Nazism.