Editing Mordecai Kaplan (section)

==Kaplan's theology==
Kaplan said: <blockquote>To believe in God means to accept life on the assumption that it harbors conditions in the outer world and drives in the human spirit which together impel man to transcend himself. To believe in God means to take for granted that it is man's destiny to rise above the brute and to eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation from human society. In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.<ref>Sonsino, Rifat. ''The Many Faces of God: A Reader of Modern Jewish Theologies''. 2004, page 22–23</ref></blockquote>

Not all of Kaplan's writings on the subject were consistent; his position evolved somewhat over the years, and two distinct theologies can be discerned with careful reading. The view more popularly associated with Kaplan is strict naturalism, à la [[John Dewey|Dewey]], which has been criticized as using religious terminology to mask a [[Nontheism|non-theistic]] (if not outright [[atheism|atheistic]]) position—one JTS colleague in the 1950s, [[Will Herberg]], went so far as to compare it to the position of [[Charles Maurras]] toward the Catholic Church.<ref>Herberg, Judaism and Modern Man, 1951, p. 296</ref> A second strand of Kaplanian theology makes clear that God has [[ontological]] reality, a real and absolute existence independent of human beliefs, while rejecting classical [[theism]] and any belief in miracles.<ref>The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan (The Modern Jewish Experience) by Mel Scult  - Paperback – March 19, 2015- Publisher: Indiana University Press; Reprint edition (March 19, 2015)- {{ISBN|0253017114}} – Page 117</ref> In 1973 he was one of the signers of the [[Humanist Manifesto II]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II | title=Humanist Manifesto II | publisher=American Humanist Association | access-date=October 14, 2012 | archive-date=October 20, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II | url-status=dead }}</ref>