The Jewish Social Contract: An Essay in Political Theology (review)

As Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, Orthodox Rabbi, citizen of the United States and Canada, and prolific author, David Novak brings a wealth of experience, and a well-articulated conservative perspective, to the question: 'How can I as a traditional Jew actively and intelligently participate in my democratic ... polities?' His description and theological defence of the Jewish social contract draw on three modes of analysis and exposition: (1) theological retrieval of the historical and normative basis for participation as Jews in a secular society (i.e., a society not dominated by a single religious tradition or in which religion has been banished to the margins of a secularist society and reduced to a purely private matter); (2) philosophical analyses of natural law justifications relating distinctively Jewish convictions to shared public reasoning about justice and the common good; and (3) political prudence regarding the application of theologically articulated Jewish teachings and philosophically justified reasons to particular policies in the shared public realm.

'Theological retrieval always comes first because a Jew must always look to the Torah to continually find answers or for data to formulate answers to all questions that involve his or her personal commitment anywhere anytime. Torah, both Scripture (Written Torah) and the normative Jewish tradition (Oral Torah), is what I mean here by Jewish theology.' Theology in the Jewish tradition is not primarily talk about God. It is reflection on 'what God wants Jews to do or not do.' The theological task, which involves re-examining ideas of the authority and interpretation of traditional texts, election, covenant, and commandments, plays an important role in counteracting the secularist assumption that 'traditionalists such as Jews must overcome their cultural origins in order to fully participate in civil society.'

Jewish participation as citizens rather than as aliens in a secular democratic society depends upon rescuing 'secularity' from 'secularist' distortions. In a secular society, members of different traditions find the ultimate legitimation of their public values in 'the founding revelations of their own communities, which have been transmitted and developed by their respective traditions.' The basic moral principles emerging from particular traditions 'can then be coordinated into universal principles through philosophical reasoning.'

Novak's aim in this book is to encourage Jewish and non-Jewish readers to reflect deeply on the theological and philosophical reasoning embedded in the idea and practice of the Jewish social contract. His references to practical applications are therefore brief and, in some cases, provocative. For example, he suggests that 'the idea of the self-possession of one's own body is used by most liberals to justify such biblically prohibited practices as abortion, euthanasia, and homosexual marriage.' He assumes that 'most liberals today seem to explicitly derive their morality from their secular political commitments.' Liberals themselves will invite further conversations about what is or is not biblically mandated or proscribed, and about how their own positions relate to the biblical tradition.