"Dawkins... thinks of faith as a refusal to ask questions. But faith as Planck, Einstein, and Nietzsche understood it is the opposite: it is the courage and principled determination to go on asking questions despite the fact that there is no easy or immediate answer...

It is that courage to begin a journey not knowing where it will lead but confident that it will lead somewhere, that there really is a destination, an order, a faint but genuine melody, that is the faith not only of the scientist but of Abraham himself who heard a voice telling him to leave his land... and did so, confident that the voice was not an illusion and the destination not a no-man's land." -- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

--end of genius quote, beginning of personal musing--
Honest questions take courage. Honest questions are powerful and break barriers. Honest questions lead to study, research, experiments, quiet introspection, and a desire to move forward. Answers to honest questions lead to quiet confidence. ( )

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book on The Great Partnership presents readers with a predominantly Jewish perspective about the meaning of life. Sacks makes a comparison between the thinking of Athens and that of Jerusalem. He argues that philosophy and science although they have examined life’s burning questions weren’t able to answer them satisfactorily. This is where Sacks sees the importance of embracing the religion of Abrahamic monotheism. The writer explains that Judaism existed for over 4,000 years, and has influenced the Christian and Islamic faith traditions that constitute about half of the world’s believers. This he points out is an extraordinary achievement especially when Jewish culture is such a minority of the world’s population. Sacks said nations without God have failed, namely those during the Enlightenment, Soviet Union, Communist China, and North Korea. He argues only Abrahamic monotheism has endured to influence the structures of democracies all over the world. So Rabbi Sacks believes in having a new synthesis of religion and science, for societies to deal with the underlying problems of poverty, crime, ignorance, racism, consumerism, greed, and power. This synthesis he argues would be best for the future direction of the world. ( )

This is a brilliant discourse on the relationship between science, faith, and religion. It should be read by three groups of people: 1) religious fundamentalists who have rejected science; 2) secular fundamentalists who have rejected religion; and 3) everyone in between.

The author, Jonathan Sacks, Baron Sacks, Kt is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. His Hebrew name is Yaakov Zvi.

In THE GREAT PARTNERSHIP Sacks rejects the extremism of both religious and secular fundamentalists who wish to but an unbreachable barrier between religion and science. And unlike Stephen J Gould's suggestion that religion and science should be kept separate, Sacks argues for a complementarity (a partnership) between them.

This book is one of the most clearly articulated discussions on why both science and religion are necessary to maintain a full humanity and the way in which both need each other to avoid extremism. My finger was almost worn out with all the highlighting I was song on my Kindle. Sacks is very, very widely read, a deep thinker, and yet writes in a beautiful, easy-to-read narrative style making profound and memorable statements simply.

His essential point is that science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. The idea is simple but extremists on both ends of the alleged science vs religion divide have burdened this idea with some very destructive unhealthy nonsense. Sacks is gently critical of both religious and secular fundamentalists appealing for a respectful conversation which, all too often, neither side are willing to engage in.

I can't speak highly enough of this book. It's one of the best I've read for ages. In fact, I nearly didn't read it, thinking that there can't be much more to say on the topic given the myriad books and debates on the topic. But I took the plunge and was incredibly rewarded. If you have any issues regarding the relationship between religion and science - whether you are an atheist or a “believer” - don't miss this brilliant, thought provoking read. It's easily digested meat for the mind! ( )

The ideas behind the book were really interesting. Unfortunately, the author rehashed the same couple thoughts over and over. I quit halfway through. ( )

Jonathan Sacks' The Great Partnership, while not short and very far from simplistic, is very readable. His basic premise is that "Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean." He argues lucidly and persuasively that the two are complementary, rather than conflicting, and that it is when people use one in the place of the other that things go horribly wrong.

"Both are necessary, but they are very different. … Whole civilisations made mistakes because they could not keep these two apart and applied to one the logic of the other.

"When you treat things as if they were people, the result is myth … Science was born when people stopped telling stories about nature and instead observed it; when, in short, they relinquished myth.

"When you treat people as things, the result is dehumanisation: people categorised by colour, class or creed and treated differently as a result. The religion of Abraham was born when people stopped seeing people as objects and began to see each individual as unique, sacrosanct, the image of God.

"One of the most difficult tasks of any civilisation - of any individual life for that matter - is to keep the two separate, but integrated and in balance. … Things are things and people are people. Realising the difference is sometimes harder than we think."

After setting out his basic case, he systematically explores a number of themes including: finding God, human dignity, political power, freedom, morality, relationships, Darwin, the problem of evil and when religion goes wrong.

Sacks argues - rightly - that his argument related primarily to the monotheistic, Abrahamic faiths as a group, but also to each of them individually. While he obviously draws predominantly from the Jewish scriptures and traditions, he does a good job of considering Christianity. However, he doesn't really cover Islam sufficiently well to prevent that becoming an afterthought, which is a pity. Sacks focuses heavily on relationship and covenant at times, and therefore probably needed to consider the Islamic conception of man's relationship with God in contrast to those of Judaism and Christianity.

It is, despite Sacks' efforts to the contrary, a book very much centred on Judaism. There's a helpful summary of rabbinic thought included for those who are unfamiliar with historical Jewish teaching on creation, evolution and the age of the universe. As someone whose understanding of Genesis comes very much from the Christian interpretation, and predominantly the Protestant evangelical tradition, I found Sacks’ analysis of the Jewish perspective on what the book is trying to say enormously helpful. And not merely of the creation stories: Sacks’s analysis of the stories of Abraham and Joseph, as well as of the book of Esther, are both a useful contribution to the book and an interesting insight into the Jewish scriptures.

Where Sacks really shines is his ability to set out his argument clearly, in small blocks, and put those blocks together to create a larger narrative which says something important about the world, science and religion. To do, in other words, precisely what he is claiming that religion does and ought to do. But his argument is as deeply grounded in philosophy as it is in the Jewish scriptures - as is to be expected from a philosopher rabbi.

This is, above all, a thought-provoking book. It is a book—and an argument, and a narrative—which needs to be pondered and wrestled with, rather than assessed on a simple, binary true/false basis. In that, it both embodies its own argument, and repays the effort.

(Also, for further examination of the problem of confusing people and things seen from a slightly different perspective, see Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum.) ( )