I first came across the ex-Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks a few years ago, in discussion with Richard Dawkins. Here he made the wonderfully unflinching statement that “without faith there is no hope”. It’s always impressive when people are prepared to say things which go against the grain of society and this, I think, counts.
It’s perhaps hard to argue that The Dignity of Difference is literature as such, but it is an incredibly important book, written with great clarity, and with radical ideas from the unexpected source of Orthodox Judaism. Published in 2002, Sacks is inevitably driven by 9/11, a fact apparent in the book’s subtitle, which declares that it will explain “how to avoid the clash of civilizations”.
Sacks’ book deals with the problems of globalization and he argues that the only way forward is to make space for difference – to see that everyone has a story and a faith just as valid as the next man’s.
In fact, the first edition of this book caused uproar in the Orthodox community. Sacks made a distinction between religion and God, arguing that, “God is universal, religion is particular.” Thus, he is in effect said that all religions are different expressions of the same God, or, as he put it, that God “has spoken to mankind through many languages, through Judaism to Jews, Christianity to Christians, Islam to Muslims”. Here we had an important religious leader, of a strongly traditional faith, taking the line of a universal God – that every religion is, in its own way, right.
Unfortunately, this enlightened text was not to remain unmolested, and later that year a reprint was issued, modifying the ‘of- fending’ passage. He still admits that other faiths can find their own relationship with God, but the language used is very much toned down and less paradigm-shifting.
Speaking about the incident, Sacks says that changing the passage was one of the hardest decisions he has ever made, but that he in the end felt duty-bound to listen to his Orthodox advisors. In a sense, Sacks’ message is no different to that which we hear all the time: love, compassion and forgiveness all bring peace and happiness. But he presents it here in a new, far from wishy-washy way, facing directly the issues of faith which define our global world.
