Rabbi Sacks: Maverick or Traditionalist?

In his contribution to our special issue, “The Intellectual Legacy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks,” Samuel Lebens sketches a noteworthy shift in R. Sacks’ theology. R. Sacks’ earliest publications manifest commitment to an austere Kabbalistic theology according to which God is a being that transcends all appearances and defies all discursive description. His later works manifest commitment to a very different theology in which God can be described as a “non-human person” who lives with us in time. Two possible explanations of this apparent transformation in R. Sacks’ thought are offered. Read Lebens’ now open-access essay, “Was Rabbi Sacks a Theological Maverick or Mystical Traditionalist?”

Samuel Lebens, co-editor of the special R. Sacks volume, is an associate professor of Jewish Philosophy at Haifa University.

Order your copy of the special issue. Tradition-niks in and near Jerusalem can get a copy at Pomeranz Bookseller (in-store, online, or delivered).