Daniel R. Langton Reform Judaism and Darwin Studia Judaica Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums Begründet von Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Herausgegeben von Günter Stemberger, Charlotte Fonrobert, Elisabeth Hollender, Alexander Samely und Irene Zwiep Band 111 Daniel R. Langton Reform Judaism and Darwin How Engaging with Evolutionary Theory Shaped American Jewish Religion ISBN 978-3-11-065913-9 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-066411-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-066122-4 ISSN 0585-5306 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019944065 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Contents I Introduction 1 II Evolution ‘in the air’: Scientific, Philosophical and Christian Influences on Reform Jewish Engagement with Evolutionary Theory 12 III Isaac Mayer Wise: The Cosmic God and an Evolving Cosmos 28 Critique of Evolutionary Science 29 The Cosmic God and Evolution 33 The Development of Self-consciousness 42 History, the Will, and the Problem of Evil and Suffering 46 A New Philosophy asan Alternative to Science or Religion? 49 Summary 50 IV Aaron Hahn: The Divine Design Principle of the Universe 52 Evolutionary Theory as a Reasonable Hypothesis 53 Universal Evolution, a Reconceived Divinity, and Eugenics 56 Summary 58 V Kaufmann Kohler: The Unfolding of Divine Life 60 Religion and Science 61 Judaism, Biblical Criticism and Morality 65 A Systematic Evolutionary Theology 69 Summary 75 VI Emil G. Hirsch: The Divine Soul of an Evolving Universe 76 A Paradigm for the History of Religion 77 Defending Evolution from a Theistic Perspective 79 A Panentheistic Account of the Moral Purpose of Evolution to Confound the Materialists 81 Summary 87 VII Joseph Krauskopf: The Divine Natural Law of Evolution 89 Science and Judaism 92 A Panentheistic Account of Evolution 94 Evolutionary Foundations for Morality 98 VI Contents Evolutionary Progressand its Consequences for Biblical Authority 101 Summary 103 VIII Conclusion 105 Appendix: Evolution and Progressive Judaism in Britain 112 Claude Montefiore 114 Morris Joseph 118 Bibliography 123 Index 129 I Introduction Among historians of Reform Judaism,which emerged in Germany in the 1810s, which divided British religious Jews from the 1840s, and which came to domi- nate North American Jewry by the 1880s,there is a general absence of interest in Darwin’s theory of evolution. The idea of evolution more generally had beenusedbyscholarsofreligion–andbyleadingJewishreformers–todescribe mankind’sreligiousprogressionfromwellbeforeDarwin’sday.ThefatherofGer- man Reform Judaism, Abraham Geiger,presentedthe emergence of the modern formsofJudaismasaninevitable,evolutionarydevelopmentfromthe1830s;ac- cordingtohisview,historyrevealedhoweachgenerationofJewshadgivenfresh meaning to the traditional liturgy and practices that had sought to express the coreethical-monotheistic aspects ofJudaism,leading to aperpetualstateof or- ganic change as the Jewish religion adapted itself to local circumstances and cultures. And similar arguments have been repeated ever since by progressive Jewishthinkers.ButwhereasGeigermadehisargumentwithoutreferencetobio- logicalevolution(infact,herejectednotonlyDarwin’stheorynaturalselection but even the phenomenon of the transmutation of species itself),¹ many other ReformJewspreferredtomakeanexplicitconnectiontobiologicalevolution,es- pecially in the U.S.While the language of evolutionism has notgone unnoticed byhistoriansofReformJudaism,thetendencyhasbeentofocusonthepolitical ambitions of assimilationist lay Jews, the theological concerns of the religious leaders and intellectual pioneers of Reform, and the critique and emulation of the surrounding Christian societies in terms of theology and practices, all at the expense of the reformers’ actual engagement with evolutionary science. The standard work on the history of Reform Judaism, Response to Modernity  InastudyofthehistoricaldevelopmentofJudaism,Geigerstatedthat‘Naturepresentsherself inagreatvarietyofbeings,accordingtoclassesandspecies,which,whiledistinctfromeach other, work together, and for each other, but are not transformed one into the other… The samePowerwhichatthebeginningcreatedthemasisasserted[byModernNaturalPhilosophy], oneoutoftheother,shouldnecessarilycontinuethesameprocess,shouldeventhisdaycreate ananimalfromaplantandcontinuouslyperfectittoitshigherorganism.Butthepresentworld presentsnosuchprocess;onthecontrary,everyspeciesremainswithinitsfixedlimits,itcon- tinuallybegetsindividualbeingsofitsownkind,butisnotchangedintoanother.Henceitisnot apromoting,butorderingpowerthatcreatesandpreserveseverykindinitsindividuality;not onethatisblindlyrushingforwardwithoutstopping,butwhichpreservesnatureasawhole, composedofdifferentparts,sothatitisunchangeablebothasawholeandinitsvariety.’Abra- hamGeiger,JudaismandItsHistory,trans.MauriceMayer(London:Trübner&Co,1866),8–9. Germanoriginal:DasJudenthumundseineGeschichte(Breslau:Schletter,1864). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110664119-001 2 I Introduction (1988) by Michael Meyer, is typical in that it barely refers to the subject.² Even when the question of the influence of Darwin on U.S. Reform ideology have beenaddressed,theconsensushasbeenthatitremainsperipheraltothedevel- opment of the movement.Thus, according to Marc Swetlitz, Reform Jewish the- ologyremainedessentiallyuntouched because evolutionarytheory was primar- ilyusedtojustifyalreadyexistingviews,and,accordingtoMichaelShaiCherry, any apparent theological innovations could traced back to older Jewish tradi- tions and might not therefore be regarded as innovative.³ From these perspec- tives,evolutionarytheorymainlyfunctionedasananalogy,providingcredibility and authority for the radical Reform agenda, but did not in itself contribute significantlytothegenerationofReformthought.Thisstudywillarguethat,con- trarytosuchclaims,thepassionateengagementwithevolutionarytheoryfound inmanyprogressiveJewishwritingsafterthepublicationofTheOriginofSpecies (1859) is suggestive of a much more important role within North American Re- formideology.Atleastinthecaseoftheprogressivesandradicals,itwillbear- gued that evolutionary theory was utilized as the key explanatory framework. WithintheU.S.ReformJewishmovement,thefirsttorespondandstakeout theirpositionweretheopponentsofevolution,writinginthe1860s.⁴Supporters ofthetheorytendedtoexpresstheirviewsonlyfromtheearly1870s,withahigh- point in the second half of the 1880s and general acceptance reached by the 1890s,andwithpositiveengagementwithevolutioncontinuingonintothetwen-  Meyerdevotesonepagetothesubjectinachapteron‘ClassicalReformJudaism’;hisindex includesonlyfourreferencesto‘Darwinism’andfourfor‘evolution,religiousandspiritual’.Mi- chaelA.Meyer,ResponsetoModernity:AHistoryoftheReformMovementinJudaism,Studiesin JewishHistory(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1988),274.  WewillreturntotheargumentsofSwetlitzandCherryintheConclusion.Theirworksinclude: MarcSwetlitz,“ResponsesofAmericanReformRabbistoEvolutionaryTheory,1864–1888,”in TheInteractionofScientificandJewishCulturesinModernTimes,ed.YakovM.RabkinandIra Robinson(Lewiston,N.Y.:EdwinMellenPress,1995),MarcSwetlitz,“AmericanJewishRespons- es to Darwin and Evolutionary Theory,1860–1890,” in Disseminating Darwinism:The Role of Place, Race, Religion, and Gender, ed. Ronald L. Numbers and John Stenhouse (Cambridge; NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,1999),MarcSwetlitz,“ResponsestoEvolutionbyReform, Conservative,andReconstructionistRabbisinTwentieth-CenturyAmerica,”inJewishTradition andtheChallengeofDarwinism,ed.GeoffreyN.CantorandMarcSwetlitz(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,2006),MichaelShaiCherry,“Creation,EvolutionandJewishThought”(Doctoral thesis,BrandeisUniversity,2001),andShaiCherry,“ThreeTwentieth-CenturyJewishResponses toEvolutionaryTheory,”Aleph3(2003).  For anoverviewofearlyReformopponents,includingAbrahamGeiger(1810–1874),David Einhorn(1809–1879),AdolphKessler(1833–1915)andAdolphKohut(1842–1894),seeSwetlitz, “ResponsesofAmericanReformRabbistoEvolutionaryTheory,1864–1888,”104. I Introduction 3 tieth-century.⁵ Four or five Reform thinkers can be presented as central to the story, namely, Isaac Mayer Wise, Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch and Joseph Krauskopf, along with the less influential Aaron Hahn.The moderate reformer, Wise,was a special case, for while he offered an evolutionary account and en- gaged seriously with vital post-Darwinian questions about the relationship be- tween human and animal minds,the origins of conscience, and the moral and teleologicalimplications,neverthelesshewasextremelyhostiletotheDarwinian mechanism of natural selection itself.The other more radical reformers tended to downplay their differences with Darwin and to augment or adapt Darwinian theory in their theological constructions, rather than to oppose it outright with an alternative evolutionary theory. In what follows, a close reading of the worksofWise,Hahn,Kohler,Hirsch,andKrauskopfwillbeofferedtochallenge theviewthatevolutioncanbesafelydiscountedintheintellectualhistoryofthe development of classical Reform Judaism in North America. Reproducing the views of these religious leaders at length is, rhetorically at least, the surest  Forexample,manypublishedandunpublishedReformJewishsermonsonthesubjectofevo- lution,withseveralwrittenasresponsestotheScopesTrialof1925,arelocatedattheAmerican JewishArchivesinCincinnati,includingthosebyMauriceHarris(1859–1930),DavidPhilipson (1862–1949), J. Leonard Levy (1865–1917), Samuel Goldenson (1878–1962), Samuel Cohon (1888–1959), Israel Bettan (1889–1957), Ferdinand Isserman (1898–1972), and Levi Olan (1903–1984).Aselectionofthesermontitlesinclude:MauriceHarris,EvolutionandReligion: A New Year Discourse Preached at Temple Israel, New York (New York: Private publisher, 1925), David Philipson, “The Biblical Story of Creation,” (American Jewish Archive, n.d.), DavidPhilipson,“Evolutionand Religion,” (AmericanJewishArchive,n.d.), David Philipson, “Religion and Evolution,” (American Jewish Archive, n.d.), David Philipson, “The Biblical Story of Creation and the Theory of Evolution,” (American Jewish Archive, n.d.), J. Leonard Levy,EvolutionorRevolution:ASundayLecture,vol.10(Pittsburgh,PA:B.Callomon,1910),Sa- muelGoldenson,EvolutionandReligion:ASermon(Pittsburgh,PA:RodefShalomCongregation, 1922),SamuelCohon,“EvolutionandtheDivineEvolver,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.),Sa- muelCohon,“EvolutioninJudaism,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.),IsraelBettan,“CanWe StillBelieveinProgress?,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.),IsraelBettan,“EvolutionandGod,” (American Jewish Archives, n.d.), Israel Bettan, “Is Evolution True?,” (American Jewish Ar- chives,n.d.),IsraelBettan,“NatureasTeacher,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.),IsraelBettan, “War and HumanNature,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.), FerdinandIsserman,“Evolution andReligion,”(AmericanJewishArchives,1923),FerdinandIsserman,“EvolutioninthePulpit “(AmericanJewishArchives,1925),FerdinandIsserman,“BiblicalScience,”(AmericanJewish Archives, 1930) Ferdinand Isserman, “Genesis and Evolution,” (American Jewish Archives, 1932),FerdinandIsserman,“OhLord,WhatIsMan?,”(AmericanJewishArchives,1932),Ferdi- nand Isserman,“GenesisTeachesFaith, Not Science,” (American Jewish Archives,n.d.), Levi Olan, “Charles Darwin: Evolution the New History,” (American Jewish Archives, 1967), Levi Olan,“CharlesDarwin:TheManWhoChallengedGenesis,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.), LeviOlan,“TheNatureofMan,”(AmericanJewishArchives,n.d.).