Contemporary Humanistic Judaism: Beliefs, Values, Practices -- Adam Chalom

Opening up multidimensional ideas, values, and practices of Humanistic Judaism to Jews of all backgrounds and beliefs, <i>Contemporary Humanistic Judaism</i> collects the movement's most important texts for the first time and answers the oft-raised question, "How can you be Jewish and celebrate Judaism if you don't believe in God?" with new vision. <p/> Part 1 ("Beliefs and Ethics") examines core positive beliefs--in human agency, social progress, ethics without supernatural authority, sources of natural transcendence, and Humanistic Jews' own authority to remake their traditional Jewish inheritance on their own terms "beyond God." Part 2 ("Identity") discusses how Humanistic Judaism empowers individuals to self-define as Jews, respects people's decisions to marry whom they love, and navigates the Israel-Diaspora relationship. Part 3 ("Culture") describes how the many worlds of Jewish cultural experience--art, music, food, language, heirlooms--ground Jewishness and enable endless exploration. Part 4 ("Jewish Life") applies humanist philosophy to lived Jewish experience: reimagined creative education (where students choose passages meaningful to them for their bar, bat, or b mitzvah [gender-neutral] celebrations), liturgy, life cycle, and holiday celebrations (where Hanukkah emphasizes the religious freedom to believe as one chooses). <p/> Jewish seekers, educators, and scholars alike will come to appreciate the unique ideologies and lived expressions of Humanistic Judaism. <