Creating Judaism : history, tradition, practice /

According to Satlow (Brown Univ.), "Judaism" cannot be the name of a single phenomenon; it marks a diverse set of religious conceptions and practices that has evolved in unpredictable ways for over 2,000 years and will continue to evolve in the future. The best that can be said--though it is important to say this much--is that the term indicates communities that identify with the historical people of Israel, seek religious authenticity through interpreting a known (though not completely fixed) canon of sacred texts, and act out their beliefs through a similarly familiar (though also not quite fixed) set of practices. This approach accounts for the remarkably varied history of Judaism and the strikingly varied character of Jewish life in the modern world without having to choose certain phenomena as more authentic or more righteous than others, and without falling into a shapeless relativism in which one thing is as good as anything else. Despite occasional errors of fact and lapses of style, this book will give readers a new perspective on a very old product of human creativity. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-/upper-level undergraduates, professionals/practitioners, and general readers. R. Goldenberg SUNY at Stony Brook