Not in the Heavens: The Premodern Roots of Jewish Secularism

The relationship between religion and secularism has become a central question in the study of religion. But secularism is just as diverse as religion. This article treats Jewish secularism as a phenomenon with its own unique characteristics derived in part from the religious tradition against which it revolted. Within premodern Judaism – the Bible, Talmud, and medieval philosophy – one finds precursors to modern secular ideas. The article demonstrates how the cardinal categories of Judaism invented by modern religious thinkers – God, Torah, and Israel – were adopted by secular Jews, such as Baruch Spinoza, emptied of traditional meaning and turned into a ‘secular theology’.