The Uses and Abuses of Knowledge

The theme of the 23rd Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the German Church Struggle, 'The Uses and Abuses of Knowledge,' emphasized the epistemic dimensions of what happened in the Shoah and the accompanying church struggle along with the hermeneutical issues which arise from them. The major plenaries and accompanying panels examined a variety of related topics with particularly focused opportunities for examining how knowledge, as well as power, have been used and abused in the past in addition to raising questions about the ways we remember and attend to our world in the present. Throughout this book, the conference theme is approached from a number of perspectives in varying styles and voices. Individually and collectively, they make it abundantly clear that knowledge is power and consequently what we know as well as how we know are questions we must continually investigate if we are to use the power of knowing wisely and responsibly.