‘Moderate Book’

Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle.

A critique of Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs’s philosophy, as expressed in his book, We Have Reason to Believe, is made in a four-page article in the June issue of Prism, an Anglican monthly.

The writer, Mr. David Edwards, who is a member of the editorial board, states: “We Have Reason to Believe may itself seem heretical to the Chief Rabbi, but as one who has read a good deal of contemporary Christian theology I found it astonishingly moderate. . . .

“Compared with Honest to God, We Have Reason to Believe has a hard intellectual centre. Dr. Robinson, when he wrote his first three chapters, knew (and said) that he was exposing himself to charges of atheism and pantheism. Dr. Jacobs is not open to criticism in that way. Indeed, he explicitly disagrees with the ultra-liberal school of thought in American Judaism which is known as Reconstructionism.”