Neu zur Sprache finden in Zeiten der Krise: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch über Hinwendungen zur Schrift und Sprache als Ressourcen in Krisenzeiten

An interdisciplinary conversation about the Bible and language as resources in times of crisis

Abstract

In an interdisciplinary discussion, the question of ways of dealing with crises will be placed in the center. The starting point is a memory of one of the greatest catastrophes in Jewish history: the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70. The emergence and formation of rabbinic Judaism is interpreted as a 'way of dealing' with this experience of crisis. The possibility to live in and with scripture and to read this rabbinic turn to scripture as a response to a profound experience of crisis finds a religious pedagogical resonance in the second part of the article: the loss of structures of meaning and points of orientation, which also determines the present atmosphere of life worlds of young people, means at the same time a massive loss of language, which is perceived as an inability to express oneself and to make the world also readable and understandable. The article tries, against the temptation to reinterpret this new speechlessness as a path to salvation, to make language strong as a resource in times of crisis.