The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion / Edition 1

by Mordecai M Kaplan, Mel Scult

Overview

Kaplan takes the major formulation of his theological approach, "God as the power that makes for salvation," and demonstrates how it can be used to invigorate the Jewish religion in a changing world.

In this book, Kaplan enlarges on his notion of functional reinterpretation and then actually applies it to the entire ritual cycle of the Jewish year-a rarity in modern Jewish thought. This work continues to function as a central text for the Reconstructionist movement, whose influence continues to grow in American Jewry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814325520
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1995
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Kaplan emigrated to the United States from Lithuania at the age of 8. After graduating from Columbia University in 1902, he was ordained a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he taught for the next 50 years. His attempts to adapt Judaism to the modern world, particularly to the American situation, led to the establishment of a new movement, Reconstructionism. He saw Judaism as representing, first and foremost, a religious civilization and proposed a Jewish theology shaped by Jewish experience and Jewish ethics.

Editorial Reviews

The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion is Mordecai M. Kaplan at his best. A classic of clear thinking from this giant of American Jewish thought, this volume will transform the way you think about symbols and ritual.

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College - David A. Teutsch

A classic in modern Jewish thought ... a work of contemporary as well as historical importance. It continues to function as a central text for the Reconstructionist movement, whose influence continues to grow in American Jewry.

Temple University - Norbert M. Samuelson

Without a doubt the second most important book Kaplan wrote after Judaism as a Civilization, and no less relevant than that book to present concerns. Here Kaplan enlarges on his notion of functional reinterpretation and then actually applies it to the entire ritual cycle of the Jewish year-a rarity in modern Jewish thought.

Stanford University - Arnold Eisen