In a time where more and more people are walking away from organized religion, and are becoming more cynical towards the spiritual beliefs based on ancient religions, how do you think Judaism and Jewish traditions will survive the next 100 years (assuming the human race makes it another century)? Also, do you think that the spiritual beliefs are just as important as cultural traditions, or does one trump the other?
Where in the world are you speaking of? In Western nations, yes, people are turning from organised religion. But in the rest of the world, it is growing by leaps and bounds. I don't know what part of the planet you live in, but it is clearly NOT the global South, unless its Australia or New Zealand.
Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Church (the Church of England) in Africa are HUGE! 70% of Anglicans live in Africa, for example, rather than in say, England or the US, or white countries where you would think it would be obvious (Canada, Australia, or New Zealand). And it is growing there like crazy, as is the Lutheran Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.
Islam, as much as I despise it, is in NO danger of dying out. If anything, the radical forms of it are experiencing growth.
Judaism tends to remain static. About half of all Jews are cultural Jews, and the other half are ethno-religious Jews, such as myself. I see no signs of Judaism dying out, though.
Certainly being a Jew is partially cultural. That can't be disputed. Judaism is a civilisation as much as it is a religion. In fact, Judaism is a civilisation before it is anything else. The Religion is a part (perhaps the largest part, but still a part) of the the broader civilisation. The civilisation is made up of the cultural, ethnic, linguistic, historic, and of course, religious aspects of what it means to be a Jew.
So, I think that Civilisation is the best way to describe being a Jew, and that Religion is the largest component of said Civilisation. For further information on this, I encourage you to read Judaism as a Civilization, by Mordecai M. Kaplan, the master work on the subject. Although published originally in 1934, it has remained in print, and continues to be the "go-to" book on the topic. I can't recommend it enough. It is brilliant.
I live in the US, and although we have our fair share of radicals and extremists here I feel like a good number of North Americans look down on organized religion (although there are compromises like "Faitheism" or like independent spiritual believers who don't follow any one church or set doctrine).
Do you see expansion of non-Jewish religious institutions around the world as a good thing, or is it doing more harm than good? Like in poorer nations like in Uganda for example where there is a surplus of religions trying to convert the people there to their way of thinking and approaching spirituality; like Roman Catholicism, and the Anglican Church as you mentioned.
Thank you for the article, it seems like an interesting read.
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