Response to Modernity: History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (Studies in Jewish History) - Hardcover

Meyer, Michael Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019505167X ISBN 13: 9780195051674

Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, 1988

Synopsis

The movement for religious reform in modern Judaism is one of the most significant phenomena of Jewish history in the last two centuries. It introduced new theological conceptions and innovations in liturgy and religious practice that affected millions of Jews. Today Reform Judaism is one of the three major branches of the Jewish faith. Michael Meyer offers a comprehensive and balanced history of the Reform movement, tracing its changing configuration and self-understanding from the beginnings of modernization in late eighteenth-century Jewish thought and practice through Reform's 1970s American renewal. He traces its spread throughout Europe and America and interprets Reform's response to such important influences as Protestantism, biblical criticism, and Darwinism. Meyer pays particular attention to the personal qualities of its leaders and the major disputes dividing the movement, especially those over Zionism. He also makes necessary comparisons with more traditional forms of modern Judaism, and measures the extent to which Reform Judaism cohered as a single, unified movement, even as it evolved in varying ways in individual countries.

About this title

About the Author:

MICHAEL A. MEYER: is Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. He is the author of The Origin of the Modern Jew, and the editor of Ideas of Jewish History, and has published numerous articles on the religious and intellectual history of Jews in modern Europe and America.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 019505167X
• ISBN 13: 9780195051674
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512