The theological-political predicament of American Jewry

Abstract

"Leo Strauss, in an autobiographical aside, spoke of being in the grip of a “theological political predicament” as a young man. He meant by this something like the following. For modern Jews the constellation of religious beliefs that seems to them reasonable and compelling—the theological horizon, so to speak—is constrained by the political horizon. They are spiritually indebted, to the point of dependency, on the values of the political system, which, for the lucky ones at least, derive from the Enlightenment. Judaism therefore depends on the Enlightenment. But what happens when confidence in the Enlightenment begins to wobble and Judaism, now weakened by its dependency, lacks the strength to make up the difference?"(...)