Faith Finding Meaning: A Theology of Judaism (review)

Sherwin's scholarly and lucid analysis is, in essence, a defense of the existence of Jewish theology against those who perceive such a discipline to be impossible of fulfillment. The goal of the book is to depict for contemporaries a viable Jewish theology and to illustrate how the discourse can address such existential problems as the meaning of the human condition. His study seeks to make the case for theology's ability to serve as an authentic basis for Jewish identity and to explicate how Jews can further their continuity as a faith community. Sherwin's hope, then, is to rescue contemporary Judaism from its inclinations toward the inauthentic and from self-destruction.

Chapters 1 and 2 offer reasons why Jewish theology has been neglected in light of the substitution for this discipline of secular "faiths" that have been developed over the last few centuries and have served as the foundation for Jewish identity. Additionally, the data from recent sociological and demographic studies of American Jewry have been examined to illustrate how these "substitute faiths" (the Enlightenment projects) have come to serve as inauthentic substitutes for Jewish identity formation. These secular foundations have failed to sustain the primary goal of Jewish communal institutions. They have failed to serve the continuity of Judaism as a faith tradition. Chapter 3 addresses the question: What is Jewish theology? The goal here is to present Jewish theology as a means for providing an authentic framework for addressing the strategic failures that have plagued modern Jewish life. Four criteria emerge to delineate a valid Jewish theology: being authentic, coherent, contemporary, and communally accepted.

Chapter 4 reveals a more contemporary theological position that supersedes the older "faith seeking understanding" approach. Sherwin wants the theological question to address the present and to be in consonance with classical Judaism. Therefore, he looks at theology as "faith seeking meaning." This approach begins with the individual discernment rather than with theological concepts. Theology, then, is at the nexus where the individual quest connects with the ongoing faith tradition to articulate the meaning of the individual immersed in an historical, religious experience. In the subsequent chapters, Sherwin has presented some of the fundamental features of Judaism, not in dogmatic terms, but rather in ways that can assist the individual's quest for meaning. He has, for example, explored the meaning of a love relationship to illustrate its symbiotic connection to "covenant." In this context, a person encounters the divine in four ways: the self, the world, the sacred word, and the sacred deed. Sherwin concludes with two chapters on how to keep faith and meaning intact.

To achieve his overall theological goal, Sherwin has offered an expansive meaning of Torah. He has looked at Torah as the teachings of Judaism embodied in the literary works and oral traditions. Torah is seen as the entire canon of Jewish literature. Its inner core is the corpus of biblical and rabbinic exegesis. At its periphery are the teachings of contemporary Jewish scholars. God spoke to Moses at Sinai, and today's explications are to be derivative from that experience. The Torah is, therefore, a single, organic unit.

Such a perspective, for example, can add innovative insights into the meaning of "evil." Rather than viewing evil as leading to despair and seeing human existence as typified by random victimization, the human person, according to Sherwin, can respond to evil by becoming active against the evil in self and the world. The person can become, in a sense, the co-creator with God to improve the world. Evil, then, would become an endemic feature in the premessianic, "messy" world. Redemption is yet to come.

Sherwin has offered a very creative response to the meaning of faith in the existential world. His theological perspective, based on the Jewish tradition, can assist men and women in creating enduring words and can help continue the lives of institutions whose work is valued. He has offered a living, Jewish theology that can...