Abstract
It would be possible to be misled by the title of this book. Questioning belief is not its aim, which is instead to address those who find themselves doing so. Early on, Zarum identifies the genre in which he is writing as apologetics (pp. xxii–xxiii), and the author’s intention is clearly to offer something of benefit to a readership that might be described as educated but not necessarily academic, grounded in his own experience as a teacher and community leader.
As a Christian minister reading a work of apologetics by a Jewish rabbi, I was perhaps inevitably attentive to the extent to which what is being defended here appears continuous with what I would recognize as my own spiritual territory, or constitutes a land apart. The answer seemed to vary between different passages of the book. Zarum concludes the Introduction by addressing the reader directly: ‘My sincere hope is for this book to be helpful to you and to anyone, religious or not, Jewish or not, who is questioning belief’ (p. xxx). Yet it is bound to make a difference to the apologetic task as to which specific beliefs are being questioned, and indeed by whom and on what grounds.
In the first part, ‘Origins’, Zarum’s concern is with the trustworthiness of the scriptural descriptions of creation, flood and exodus in the light of modern science and historical study – familiar enough as a theme in Christian as well as Jewish thought since the nineteenth century. The general approach offered here is to argue that the purpose of Scripture is to communicate certain theological and moral truths, and that therefore historicity is not a primary concern for its believing reader. Later on, Zarum argues that divine miracles are ‘not theologically significant’ (p. 212), and that the effectiveness of prayer is that it ‘enables us to live intentionally rather than reactively’ (p. 298). The critical issue such an approach leaves open is what kind of account to give of divine agency in creation, judgement and redemption once the security of correlation between the narration of God’s deeds presented in the text and ‘actual’ events in the past has been lost.
The second part, ‘Ethics’, is both more overtly Jewish in its concerns and sources and also potentially more engaging for a Christian reader. Its four chapters consider slavery, animal sacrifice, collective punishment and Israel’s election, in relation to Scripture on the one hand and contemporary ethical concerns on the other. Animal sacrifice in the Bible is paired with the legitimacy of killing animals for food; biblical narratives about collective punishment with the Israeli government’s policy of house demolitions for particular categories of offenders; and celebration of Israel as God’s chosen people with opposition to racism. In each chapter, Zarum draws extensively and creatively on rabbinic traditions of biblical interpretation to develop constructive dialogue between the text of Scripture and ways in which it appears to set off ethical alarm bells for modern readers. It might be noted that, by contrast with the first part of the book, the historicity of the scriptural passages discussed is generally taken at face value here.
In the third part, ‘Beliefs’, the author becomes more explicitly focused on the ‘many Jews who find it hard to believe in God and the Torah’ (p. 261). Looking at various dimensions of such belief in God and, in the final chapter, at prayer, Zarum urges that faithfulness to Jewish identity entails an openness at least to such things. At some points, the objective veracity of theological claims appears to come close to being displaced by their pragmatic function in securing the continuity of Jewish life, as when it is claimed that ‘surely it is being faithful to our fellow Jews that is of paramount importance’ (p. 268). Maimonides is repeatedly cited throughout the book as an authority, and indeed finds a place of honour in the Acknowledgements (p. xvi); something of his medieval combination of rationalizing theology with ardent defence of religious tradition also colours this foray into contemporary apologetics.