Sitting in an airport waiting for a delayed flight, I picked up a newspaper and noticed an article by a prominent Australian Catholic retelling his religious history. There is nothing remarkable here. I had read this type of story, even by this very author, many times before. That was the point. It occurred to me that this type of reflection has almost become the dominant discourse in the public discussion of Catholicism in particular, but also many other so-called mainline Christian churches. The basic premise of these stories is a variation on moving away from a superstitious and intense religious belief to something more satisfactory, usually a type of ethical system which places a high value on morality but has little metaphysical emphasis.
Another aspect of these stories is their focus on the unease the authors feel toward the official line of the denomination. The hierarchy is seen as backward and in need of serious updating before it can once again claim the adherence of the aggrieved authors. Why do these articles appear so often? My short answer is that it is a generational issue. Intellectuals of a certain vintage tend to monopolise the popular expression of religious belief and identity. No conspiracy here, just a question of seniority.
At the time of my airport epiphany I was reading of Jewish reactions to the Enlightenment. One of the most interesting phenomena in 19th-century Jewish life was the relatively sudden emergence of Jews who had ambivalent feelings about their religious heritage. How did this situation emerge so soon after the liberation of Jews from the ghettos of Western Europe? It appears that part of the explanation lies in the sudden and dramatic change in the circumstances of Jews living in those countries under the influence of post-Napoleonic legal codes. The concentration of Jews in ghettos in Europe, with some exceptions such as court Jews, protected them from secular Enlightenment influences.
Perhaps the most famous court Jew, Moses Mendelssohn, sought to develop an expression of Jewish belief and culture faithful to the historic sense of Judaism, that was also in tune with the Kantian ideal that saw the Enlightenment as a time when people freed themselves from self-imposed immaturity. While most Jews remained confined to ghettos, Mendelssohn’s thinking was largely speculative. When the walls literally came down, however, the first reaction, as anticipated, was a greater harmony between the newly emancipated Jewish