Reconstructionist Judaism
An evolving religious civilization
The central idea of Reconstructionism is that Judaism is more than a
religion in the narrow sense but is a complete religious civilization,
with its own art, music, literature, culture, and folk-ways - as well as
religious rituals, ethics, and philosophical and theological discourse.
Like all civilizations, Judaism is, and has always been, an evolving set
of beliefs and practices.
Reconstructionism was founded by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), with
a view to revitalizing Judaism in the modern world. Each generation of
Jews is charged with the responsibility for envisioning the Judaism of
its own time, and fashioning it anew out of inherited traditions and the
record of its own experience. Reconstructionist Judaism strongly
emphasizes the humanistic and naturalistic values in historical Judaism,
and it places them in a context that reflects contemporary social
conscience, philosophy, science, and the quest for spirituality.
