Modern Judaism pdf

Dan Mark Cohn-Sherbok is a rabbi of Reform Judaism and a Jewish theologian. He is Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales.Born in Denver, Colorado, he graduated from East High School (Denver) and was a student at Williams College, Massachusetts, spending a junior year abroad in Athens, Greece.
He was ordained a Reform rabbi at the Hebrew Union College at Cincinnati. He was a Chaplain of the Colorado House of Representative, and Honorary Colonel Aide-de-Camp of New Mexico. He has served as a rabbi in the United States, England, Australia and South Africa. He was a student at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and rowed in the Wolfson College boat. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Cambridge in England. Later, he received an honorary doctorate in divinity from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York City. He taught theology at the University of Kent and served as Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society, and was Professor of Judaism at the University of Wales. He has served as visiting professor at University of Essex, Middlesex University, St. Andrews University, Durham University, University of Vilnius, Lithuania, Charles University, Prague, York St John University, Trinity University College, St Mary's University, Twickenham, St Andrews Biblical Theological College, Moscow and Honorary Professor at Aberystwyth University. He has been a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Harris Manchester College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Corresponding Fellow of the Academy of Jewish Philosophy, a Visiting Research Fellow of Heythrop College, University of London, a Life Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge, an Honorary Senior Member of Darwin College, University of Kent, an Associate Member of the SCR Christ Church, Oxford, a Member of the SCR Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and a Member of the London Society for the Study of Religion and the Arts and Humanities Peer Review College. He has also served as a Visiting Scholar of Mansfield College, Oxford, the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and Sarum College. He was a finalist of the Times Preacher of the Year, and winner of the Royal Academy Friends design competition. He is married to Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok.

Modern Judaism pdf by Dan Cohn-Sherbok

Since the post-Enlightenment, Jews have fragmented into a variety of sub-groups, each with their own religious ideology. This book provides a description as well as a critique of these various Jewish religious groups and offers an alternative model of Judaism based on an assessment of the nature of contemporary Jewish life. As will be seen, modern Jews are deeply divided on a wide variety of issues. Given this situation, no uniform pattern of Jewish existence can be imposed from above, nor is it likely to emerge from within the body of Israel. What is required instead is a philosophy of Jewish autonomy which legitimizes Jewish subjectivity and personal decision-making. This philosophy of Judaism - which is referred to in this study as 'Open Judaism' - provides a new foundation for Jewish life as Jews stand on the threshold of the third millennium.
"I could not reconcile anything these people were talking about with anything that made sense: miracles, prohibitions - keep the whole thing! There was one thing that set the seeds in motion very early on. I used to go to the Science Museum. The folks took me; I went there all the time. I loved it. You see these prehistoric things, and all that stuff. When I learnt how to read, I see these things are sixty million years old. They got dates on 'em. How come then, in religion school, the calendar is 5,000 and some years old? So I start thinking about it. This was when I was prob- ably seven or eight. And I say, 'There's something wrong here. These people are telling me the world started 5,000 years ago and· these things are sixty million years old! So I go in to the rabbi and say, 'How come?' He says, 'That's the way it is.' And I say, How can you say that's the way it is. I'm reading the Bible already, and I don't see anything about dinosaurs in there. Somewhere, somebody's got something wrong. I don't know who, but somebody's got something wrong.' (D. and L. Cohn- Sherbok, 1994,246)"