(Born in the old Russian Empire, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) was excommunicated from Orthodox Jewish organizations in America (where he lived from 1889 until his death at the age of 102) for his radical revisionism of traditional Rabbinical Judaism. But it was by virtue of that radicalism that he would chart an unorthodox course all of his own, leaving an indelible mark on the history of Jewish thought and earning an indisputable place here, in this subsection. The title of this entry is the title of his 1935 revolutionary book.)
It is commonly recognized that the so-called Reconstructionist Judaism is a far more radical departure from normal religious (namely, Orthodox, to say nothing of those ultra-religious ultra-Orthodox brands) Judaism than either Reform or Conservative modifications, which are both little more than secular celebrations of the Hoch Jewish identity, lifestyle, and established culture. What particularly distinguishes Kaplan’s Variation on the Judaic Theme from the easygoing Reformist adaptations is his daring incursion into the sacred realm of philosophy, even if only into its crudest and intellectually primitive quarters, where he ventures to infuse religious terminology into an ostensibly secular subject matter.
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s philosophy is commonly recognized as derivative from John Dewey’s naturalism. Admittedly, he devised his philosophy for all those who had lost faith in traditional Judaism and needed an alternative philosophy that would combine secularism with elements of traditional religious talk. Therefore, in 1935 he wrote his groundbreaking book with the revealing title Judaism as a Civilization where he made the social aspect of Judaism paramount, reducing God to a positive social force. He wrote that “to believe in God means to accept life on the assumption that it harbors conditions in the outer world and drives in the human spirit, which together impel man to transcend himself. To believe in God means to take for granted that it is man’s destiny to rise above the brute, and to eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation from human society. In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.”
The last sentence is disingenuously deceptive, suggesting of a possible religious interpretation, where there is none. To summarize Rabbi Kaplan’s “religion,” I am tempted to bring up Abraham Maslow’s concept of self-actualization here, seeing that Kaplan’s “God” is the highest natural (and by no means supernatural!) force, which leads man (a Jew) to such self-actualization.
It is commonly recognized that the so-called Reconstructionist Judaism is a far more radical departure from normal religious (namely, Orthodox, to say nothing of those ultra-religious ultra-Orthodox brands) Judaism than either Reform or Conservative modifications, which are both little more than secular celebrations of the Hoch Jewish identity, lifestyle, and established culture. What particularly distinguishes Kaplan’s Variation on the Judaic Theme from the easygoing Reformist adaptations is his daring incursion into the sacred realm of philosophy, even if only into its crudest and intellectually primitive quarters, where he ventures to infuse religious terminology into an ostensibly secular subject matter.
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s philosophy is commonly recognized as derivative from John Dewey’s naturalism. Admittedly, he devised his philosophy for all those who had lost faith in traditional Judaism and needed an alternative philosophy that would combine secularism with elements of traditional religious talk. Therefore, in 1935 he wrote his groundbreaking book with the revealing title Judaism as a Civilization where he made the social aspect of Judaism paramount, reducing God to a positive social force. He wrote that “to believe in God means to accept life on the assumption that it harbors conditions in the outer world and drives in the human spirit, which together impel man to transcend himself. To believe in God means to take for granted that it is man’s destiny to rise above the brute, and to eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation from human society. In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.”
The last sentence is disingenuously deceptive, suggesting of a possible religious interpretation, where there is none. To summarize Rabbi Kaplan’s “religion,” I am tempted to bring up Abraham Maslow’s concept of self-actualization here, seeing that Kaplan’s “God” is the highest natural (and by no means supernatural!) force, which leads man (a Jew) to such self-actualization.
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