The visit of Jonathan Sacks to the Department of Comparative Religion at Manchester University to deliver the Sherman Lectures in 1989 is vividly remembered, by all who were involved, as a time of particular pleasure and stimulation. These lectures were enjoyed by academics and the public alike, a point evidenced by the fact that although the audience had been large from the beginning, it grew as the series progressed.
This book is an extension of those lectures. It is not simply a survey of modern Jewish thought, but an important contribution to it. The field it encompasses is vast, treating traditional authorities and philosophers, such as Spinoza, and modern history, not least the Holocaust which was, as he points out, as significant a moment as any in the last 2,000 years of Jewish history. He considers the concept of biblical authority in the light of modern thought; the impact on Jewish philosophy of diaspora thinking, notably in America; of modernity; of secularism, and the creation of the State of Israel. His own religious position is not cloaked, but the great diversity of beliefs and philosophies is considered with empathy, understanding and insight. It is an analysis both profound and readable. What it highlights is the variety and vigour of recent Jewish philosophies. But, as the author also shows, it is a diversity of thoughts deeply rooted in Jewish history and traditions, even though affected by the turbulent period of history from the 1940s onwards. While taking full account of modern history, thought, and social influences, he argues that the great philosophies which he analyses preceded the Holocaust and were not created by it, as others have said. What emerges above all is the power and vitality of modern Jewish thought.
Subsequent to delivering the Sherman lectures at Manchester, Jonathan Sacks gave the prestigious Reith Lectures on the BBC, and was then appointed Chief Rabbi in London. The qualities which led to those invitations are evident in this volume: the scholar able to communicate his profound understanding, and the man of faith, able to comprehend the problem that modernity poses for Jewish identity, yet strong in his own sense of being the inheritor of a historical covenant conscious of both the universalism and the particularism inherent in Jewish belief. This book represents an erudite balancing of classical thought and the challenges of contemporary life. The Department of Comparative Religion at Manchester is honoured to have been host to such a lecturer, privileged to be associated with the publication and grateful, as always, to the Sherman Trusts whose endowment facilitated both the lectures and the book.
John R. Hinnells
Professor of Comparative Religion
Manchester University