Renee Kogel

This poorly-planned collection of agnostic apologia reads like a tract written by well-intentioned but short-sighted pseudo-intellectuals. The anthology brings together a wide variety of Jewish authors from Spinoza onward, each of whom is shrunk (as needed) to fit a predefined "secular humanistic Jewish" mold. The excerpts chosen from each work cited are without exception so short as to be utterly free of context and to provide practically no insight on the original author's intentions.

In short, the editing is awful. Having braved the bland introduction, I made it about forty pages into the actual text before calling it quits. The topic is a worthy one, but is poorly addressed by this volume.

Note: I've since picked up and have begun reading an earlier and much superior anthology of Jewish literature, about which I'll here blog later.… (altro)