“Tongues of Fire”: Hiroshima as Hell and a New Pentecost?

Abstract

Recalling the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 2020, and Nagasaki three days later, this article seeks to “say something theological” about these horrific attacks. With help from Bernard Lonergan and works such as Richard Rhodes’s The Making of the Atomic Bomb, I ask whether the name that J. Robert Oppenheimer gave to the testing of the bomb—“Trinity”—can fittingly name the bombings themselves. Given the grave challenges of this anniversary year, I propose especially that Hiroshima’s terrifying “tongues of fire” signals a “new Pentecost,” calling diverse peoples to form vibrant new communities of charity and grace.