that the idea of God must be reconceived in the after-
math of the Holocaust; more specifically, Cohen urges
the idea that God should be understood as standing
outside human history. More recently, Zachary Braiter-
man has employed a post-Modern perspective on these
theological difficulties.
Further Readings
Braiterman, Z. (God) After Auschwitz.Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1998.
Cohen, A. The Tremendum.New York: Crossroad, 1988.
Rubenstein, R. The Cunning of History.New York: Harper &
Row, 1975.
Holy Roman Empire
The political empire of Western Europe from the coro-
nation of CHARLEMAGNEin A.D. 800 to the conquest of
Napoleon I in 1806. The “second thousand-year”
empire saw itself as a successor to the first Roman
Empire (500 B.C.–A.D. 500). As a political concept and
image, the Holy Roman Empire represented Europe’s
nostalgic yearning for a universal, peaceful order, con-
trolling strife within and defending from foreign
invaders (especially Muslims of the Ottoman Empire).
The image of a thousand-year empire was invoked by
the NAZIGerman Third Reich (1933–45) under Adolf
HITLER.
The Holy Roman Empire was distinguished from its
pagan predecessor by the rise of the Roman CATHOLIC
Church and papacy, which preserved CLASSICALciviliza-
tion and learning after the fall of the first Roman
empire under Emperor Romulus Augustulus in A.D.
- Just as the pope was seen as the vicar of Christ in
spiritual matters, the emperor was seen as the vicar of
Christ in temporal or worldly matters. But both had
limits on their authority by the practical difficulties of
managing a vast territorial empire made up of diverse
nationalities, languages, and customs. Latin remained
the language of the church and the court, partly to pre-
serve this universal empire among Italians, Germans,
Franks, and so on. The Eastern (BYZANTINE) empire,
centered in Constantinople, also challenged the Holy
Roman Empire’s claim to succession of the earlier
Roman empire.
Emperors were supposed to be elected under a pro-
cedure developed by the pope (with national “elec-
tors”), but the office tended to become hereditary from
the kings of Germany, beginning with Otto I (the
Hapsburg dynasty) in A.D. 936. A balance of power
existed between the church, the emperor, various
regional princes and independent towns, cities, and
GUILDS. By 1648, there were more than 300 sovereign
principalities or free imperial cities, so an informal sys-
tem of CHECKS AND BALANCESexisted in the Holy Roman
Empire. The Protestant REFORMATION increased this
division of power by breaking the Catholic monopoly
over the church and aligned Lutheran princes against
the emperor. By the 1700s, the imperial title had
become largely honorific, but it contained considerable
symbolic power. The current European Union is an
economic and political form of the empire, devoid of a
spiritual CHRISTIANdimension.Further Reading
Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount. The Holy Roman Empire.New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1904.homosexuality/homosexual
As a political issue, the debates over homosexual
RIGHTSrepresent a serious conceptual and moral issue.
By making sexual identity a public matter, the gay/
lesbian/bisexual/transgender movement fulfills Han-
nah ARENDT’s prophesy (in her book, The Human Con-
dition) that traditionally private matters will become
socialized in modernity. On a deeper level, the proho-
mosexual lobby, which seeks equal legal rights to
nonheterosexual marriages and an end to all DISCRIMI-
NATIONon sexual orientation and activities grounds,
reflects James Davison HUNTER’s “PROGRESSIVE” mindset
(in his book Culture Wars), which places personal indi-
vidual preference above all objective and traditional
moral standards and sees ethics as historically and per-
sonally relative. This is contrasted, by Hunter, with the
more CONSERVATIVE“orthodox” perspective that rejects
homosexuality on traditional moral, religious, and
NATURAL-LAWgrounds.
In contemporary U.S. politics, this takes the form
of prohomosexuality in the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY, the
liberal mainline Protestant churches (and Reformed
Judaism), and the liberal media and educational insti-
tutions. The antihomosexual agenda groups include
the CATHOLICand EVANGELICALChurches, the REPUBLI-
CAN PARTY, and the conservative media and schools.
Much of this public debate now coalesces on the issue
of AIDS, a disease that affects male homosexuals dis-
proportionately. Prohomosexual IDEOLOGYargues that
laws forbidding homosexuals to have legal marriages
(and therefore shared health-care insurance), militaryhomosexuality/homosexual 145