Reform Judaism: The Origin and Evolution of a "Church Movement"

Abstract

* I am indebted to John Lofland and Rodney Stark who collaborated with me in formulating the theoretical distinctions outlined in the first section of this paper. I am also grateful to Neil Smelser for his helpful criticisms of an early draft. This is Publication Number A-41 in the series of the Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley. 1 Students of religion have tended either to avoid consideration of Judaism or to treat it as a special area of study presumably unrelated to theories concerning Christian religion. Theorists who have studied church and sect have been especially remiss in applying their generalizations to the Jewish case. Current theory, in short, is limited not only to particular historical conditions, as Benton Johnson suggests, but also to a particular religious type. Examination of Judaism, then, will at a minimum test the comprehensiveness of accepted sociological propositions. In addition, because of the singularity of the historic relation between the Jewish community in the Diaspora and the accommodating societies, such an investigation promises to yield new insights and in this way prove fruitful for our understanding of religious movements in general. doxy, is a sectarian movement, analytically indistinct from Christian sects that arise out of schisms within established religious bodies. Yet certain elements usually associated with sects, such as literal adherence to Biblical teachings and apocalyptic ideological tendencies, are conspicuously absent. Of greater significance, while most religious movements seek to modify or transform societal norms and values, the Reform Movement is striking for its attempt to bring its norms and values into greater conformity with those of the larger society. This apparent ambiguity provides a useful point of departure for analysis of the Reform Movement, and a possible basis for the reformulation of theory. To state the question simply-is Reform Judaism a church or a sect? This issue has been raised many times in terms of criticism of the church-sect typology as it was first formulated by Troeltsch and unsuccessfully redefined by subsequent sociologists. In a recent paper Benton Johnson offers a clear statement of the problem:

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