From Ideology to Liturgy
Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism
Liturgical creativity has been a hallmark of Reconstructionist Judaism since Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) first developed the movement's philosophy in the 1930s. In this first systematic analysis of official Reconstructionist prayer materials, Eric Caplan examines its unique adaptation of the traditional Jewish liturgy and its creation of new prayer texts to convey its changing ideology. He discusses Kaplan's life and thought, analyzes Reconstructionist liturgies from 1941 to the present, and compares them to the contemporaneous liturgies of Reform, Conservative, and Renewal Judaism, which in turn are compared with their 1940s predecessors to illustrate developments within American Liberal Judaism in general.
"An engaging and provocative book."
-Mel Scult, Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College
Eric Caplan is Assistant Professor and Director of the Jewish Teacher Training Program at McGill University in Montreal.
Eric Caplan
2002 / 413 pp / Monograph No. 26 / ISBN 0-87820-450-4, cloth: $49.95
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