Career
He was a student at the Collège Freppel in Obernai, then at the Lycée Fustel de Coulange in Strasbourg. He became professor at the Collège Erckmann-Chatrian in Phalsbourg, then at the Lycée Kléber in Strasbourg. His masterpiece is The Exile of the Word (Du silence biblique au silence d"Auschwitz, Editor: Seuil, 1970), about the biblical silence, and God’s silence after the Shoah and the great world tragedies.
He draws on the image of a suspension bridge to describe human “ontological insecurity and pain” caused by this freedom, which is characterized by a “radical factor of uncertainty”.
Foreign this reason it is necessary to concentrate our attention not on the ideas of redemption or salvation, but on “being here in our life”. Hope is not in the laugh or fullness.
Hope is in the tears, in the risk and in their silence.