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Abstract
Judaism has been defined as many things: "religion," "culture," "ethnicity," "race," "nation," and (for Mordecai Kaplan) "civilization." Each definition, including Kaplan's, poses ethical challenges by positing explicitly (or implicitly) a hierarchical ordering where Judaism is "religiously true," "culturally advanced," or otherwise "better than" other religions. This article therefore suggests reconceiving Judaism as a "conversation," a more expansive term with no ethical hierarchy, and (as it happens) fully congruent with human nature, in that human beings are not so much "rational creatures" (Aristotle), "religious creatures" (Eliade), or "working creatures" (Marx), as they are "conversational creatures." It further introduces the concept "cultural caricature" to project ultimate ethical outcomes of the various definitions (e.g., the caricature of "ethnicity" is "ethnic cleansing"). The caricature of "conversation" is a Museum of the Human Condition, where each religious tradition gets its own room and where religious adherents meet in the corridors to converse together—what we nowadays call interfaith dialogue.

Mordecai M. Kaplan reexamined -- Theorist and activist -- The rational mystic -- Toward a theology of experience -- Religious education for democracy -- On the theology of election -- Other critics -- Naturalism and supernaturalism -- Ethical values in the thought of Bertrand Russell and Mordecai M. Kaplan -- Reconstructionism reexamined and applied -- Reconstructionism revisited -- A state with a Jewish majority -- The concept of a Jewish state -- What is a Zionist state? -- The Western Wall -- A theology of ethics -- Is this the meaning of my life? -- A rational approach to the idea of God -- When a judge steps off the bench

Part of a symposium on Samuel Bellow's Ravelstein (2002) analyzes the novel within the debate of biographical representation vs fictional tribute to Allan Bloom. The roles of Judaism & eros are examined, particularly as they relate to political & religious philosophies, including the prospects for life after death. L. Collins