Judaism Without God?: Judaism as Culture and Bible as Literature

This volume describes explores key concepts in the discourse of Judaism as culture. It also includes a history of pluralism in Jewish culture and models for Humanistic Jewish education. The humanistic, non-religious approach of this book presents Judaism as the culture of the Jewish people and God as a literary figure created by the authors of the Bible, a figure that continues to exist as such today. Like all fictional work, the literature of the Bible represents the cultural and spiritual life of the eras in which it was created. The poetic and conceptual experience of reading the Biblical works exposes the human condition of its literary heroes. The literature of the Bible influenced the annals of humanity's spiritual life in its presentation of God as an abstract concept of becoming; in the socialist laws of the Sabbath; and in the choice of justice and virtue over God's mitzvahs [commandments].