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Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal or Progressive Judaism, is a major confessional division within Judaism, which emphasizes the evolving nature of the religion, the superiority of its ethical aspects compared to the ceremonial ones, and a belief in a progressive revelation not centered on the theophany on Mount Sinai. The origins of Reform Judaism lay in 19th-century Germany, where its early principals were formulated by Rabbi Abraham Geiger and his associates. "Reform Judaism" as a proper term specifically refers to two denominations, the American Union for Reform Judaism and the British Movement for Reform Judaism. Along with other movements sharing the same basic convictions, such as Liberal Judaism, they are members of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, founded in 1926; Reconstructionist Judaism, espousing an unrelated doctrine, entered the Union in 1990. ==Characteristics== While its diversity and inherent pluralism impede any simplistic definition of Reform Judaism, the basic tenet of its theology is a belief in a progressive revelation,〔Dana Evan Kaplan, ''Contemporary Debates in American Reform Judaism'', Routledge, 2013. p. 239. ; Elliot N. Dorff, ''Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors to Our Descendants'', United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 1979. pp. 104-105.; Eugene B. Borowitz, ''Reform Judaism Today'', Behrman House, 1993. pp. 147-148.〕 occurring continuously and not limited to the theophany at Sinai, the defining event of revelation in traditional interpretation. According to this view, all holy scripture of Judaism including the Pentateuch were authored by human beings, who while under direct divine influence also inserted their understanding and reflected the spirit of their consecutive ages. Concurrently, all Jews are a further link in the chain of revelation, capable of reaching new insights. Religious practice and belief can be renewed and reinvigorated.〔^ Jakob Josef Petuchowski, ''The Concept of Revelation in Reform Judaism'', inside: ''Studies in Modern Theology and Prayer'', Jewish Publication Society, 1998. pp. 101-112.〕 The chief promulgator of this concept was Rabbi Abraham Geiger, generally considered founder of the movement. After critical research led him to regard scripture as a human creation, bearing the marks of historical circumstances, he abandoned the belief in an unbroken line of interpretation derived from Sinai and gradually replaced it with the idea of progressive revelation. While also subject to change and new understanding, the basic premise endures as a tenet of Reform Judaism. In its early days, this theology imitated the philosophy of German idealism, from which its founders drew much inspiration: belief in humanity marching toward a full understanding of itself and the divine, manifested in moral progress towards perfection. Similar views were espoused by other key Reform thinkers, such as Kaufmann Kohler and Claude Montefiore. Around World War II, this rationalistic theology was replaced mainly by the Jewish existentialism of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, centered on a complex, personal relationship with the creator, and a more sober and cautious outlook.〔Robert G. Goldy, ''The Emergence of Jewish Theology in America'', Indiana University Press, 1990. pp. 24-25.〕 The various strands of the denomination regard Judaism throughout the ages as derived from such a process of constant evolution. They warrant and obligate further modification, and reject any fixed, permanent set of beliefs, laws or practices. Another key aspect of this doctrine is the personal autonomy of each adherent, who may formulate his own understanding and expression of his religiosity. Reform is unique in placing the individual, albeit with consideration toward tradition and community, as the authorized interpreter of Judaism.〔Dorff, p. 132; Dana Evan Kaplan, ''American Reform Judaism: An Introduction'', Rutgers University Press, 2009. pp. 41-42; Jonathan Sacks, ''Crisis and Covenant: Jewish Thought After the Holocaust'', Manchester Uni. Press, 1992. p. 158.〕 The movement emphasizes the ethical facets of the faith as its central attribute, superseding the ritual ones. Reform thinkers often cited the Prophets' condemnations of ceremonial acts, lacking true intention and performed by the morally corrupt, as testimony that rites have no inherent quality. Geiger centered his philosophy on the prophets' teachings, regarding morality and ethics as the stable core of a religion in which ritual observance transformed radically throughout time. However, practices were seen as a means to elation and a link to the heritage of the past, and Reform generally argued that rituals should be maintained, discarded or modified based on whether they served these higher purposes. Reform Judaism never entirely abandoned ''halachic'' (traditional jurisprudence) argumentation, both due to the need for precedent to counter external accusations and the continuity of heritage, but had largely made ethical considerations or the spirit of the age the decisive factor in determining its course. Reform rabbis in 19th-Century-Germany had to accommodate conservative elements in their communities, while at the height of "Classical Reform" in the United States ''halachic'' considerations could be virtually discarded. Later on, Rabbi Solomon Freehof and his successors reintroduced such elements, but they too regarded ''halacha'' as too rigid a system. Instead, they recommended that selected features will be readopted and new observances established in a piecemeal fashion, as ''minhag'' (customs). The advocates of this approach also stress that their responsa are of non-binding nature, and their recipients may adapt them as they see fit.〔Walter Jacob, ''Liberal Judaism and Halakhah'', Rodef Shalom Press, 1988. pp. 90-94.; Michael A. Meyer, ''(Changing Attitudes of Liberal Judaism toward Halakhah and Minhag )'', Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies, 1993.〕 In the theological sphere, the movement fully accepted the findings of modern, critical scholarship and strove to adapt Judaism to modern notions of rationalism. In conformity with that, its founders rejected several central traditional precepts: the future Resurrection of the dead and Reward and Punishment in the World to Come were denied, with only belief in the Immortality of the Soul enduring. The awaiting for a personal Messiah who will restore the sacrificial cult in the Temple at Jerusalem, was substituted with working toward a Messianic Age of perfect harmony, and the Election of Israel was reinterpreted in universal terms, as a mission to spread morality and monotheism among the people of the world. Angels and Heavenly Hosts were also rejected. All these concepts were omitted, wholly or partially, from Reform liturgy and their lack is its defining feature.〔Walter Homolka, ''Liturgie als Theologie: das Gebet als Zentrum im jüdischen Denken'', Frank & Timme GmbH, 2005. pp. 63-98; and especially: J. J. Petuchowski, ''Prayerbook Reform in Europe: the Liturgy of European Liberal and Reform Judaism'', World Union for Progressive Judaism, 1968.〕 Generally, especially from the 1970s, the denomination ceased stressing principals and core beliefs and focuses more on the personal spiritual experience. This shift was not accompanied by a distinct new theology or by the abandonment of the former, but rather with ideological ambiguity, as the leadership allowed and encouraged a wide variety of positions, from selective adoption of ''halachic'' observance to elements approaching religious humanism. The declining importance of the theoretical foundation in favour of pluralism and equivocalness, with a stress on an all-welcoming "Big Tent Judaism", is also known as the transformation from "Classical" to "New Reform Judaism".〔Kaplan, ''Contemporary Debates'', pp. 136-142.〕 This was expressed in encompassing a very wide spectrum: while the denomination remained explicitly theistic, one prayer rite from 1975 was cautiously drafted to accommodate Religious Humanists, not altering the reference to God in the Hebrew original but translating it as "the eternal power" in the English. On the other extreme, the 2007 standard-issue prayer book contained the traditional formula about Resurrection, though it was clarified that the denomination did not literally believe in it, but rather included it as a matter of heritage. Its philosophy made Reform Judaism, in all its variations, more prone to change than other denominations. In the late 19th Century and early 20th, "Classical Reform" congregations in America held prayers without blowing the Ram's Horn, phylacteries, mantles or head covering. The laws concerning dietary and personal purity, the priestly prerogatives, marital ordinances and so forth were dispensed with. The "New Reform" lays a greater emphasis of practical observance: numerous rituals – circumcision or Letting of Blood for converts (officially declared unnecessary by the Reform Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1890), ablution, some dietary laws – were readopted by the movement's establishment, though as a matter of personal choice for the congregants. The denomination was also the first major Jewish movement to embrace liberal innovations such as gender equality in religious life, tolerance for LGBT and ordination of female or LGBT rabbis. While opposed to interfaith marriage in principle, CCAR officials estimated that about half of their rabbis partake in such ceremonies. The need to cope with this phenomenon led to the recognition of patrilineal descent: every child born to a couple in which a single member was Jewish, whether mother or father, was accepted as a Jew on condition that he received corresponding education and committed himself as such. Conversely, an offspring of a Jewish mother only will not be accepted if he did not demonstrate affinity to the faith. This decision was taken by the by British Liberal Judaism already in the 1950s, the North American Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) accepted it in 1983, and The British Movement for Reform Judaism affirmed it in 2015. The other, smaller branches of the World Union for Progressive Judaism mostly did not. Worldwide, the movement is mainly centered in North America, with roughly 1.5 million congregants in the URJ in some 900 communities. As of 2013, the Pew Research Center survey classified it as the largest denomination in U.S. Jewry, representing about 35% of it. The next in size, by a wide margin, are the two British movements. In 2010 the MRJ and Liberal Judaism respectively had 16,125 and 7,197 member households in 45 and 39 communities (or 19.4% and 8.7% of British Jews registered at a synagogue). Other WUPJ member organizations are based in forty countries around the world. The total number of affiliates (including 65,000 Reconstructionists) is estimated at 1.8 million. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Reform Judaism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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