Take a look at this two dimensional grid I made. I'm sure it looks somewhat familiar, kinda like the modern grids you see that depict the different kinds of political views of people where each corner shows a different kind of general view. The benefit of such an arrangement is that it allows for a more informative statement of one's beliefs than would a simple left-right statement. Here too, each corner shows a general type of view that all Jews would take on Judaism in general.
So far, all we can do with the grid would be a self evaluation. Where do you think you fall on it based on your own beliefs and actions? I put myself at the top right corner. Maybe a +9.5 on the Freethinking scale and a +7.5 on the Observant scale. Go ahead, rate yourself. I'm curious about all this.
I think that on the grid, Orthodoxy would be located in Quadrant IV. Reform might find itself by Quadrant II, as would the open Jewish Atheists. Conservatives would probably be a big mess all along the middle areas. The Orthoprax, Reconstructionists, and GH's Conservative Chareidi would find themselves mostly in Quadrant I. But in all this, we must note that all of these views are held by Jews. They are Jews in full regard and their views aren't meaningless just because one group says all the others are wrong. We have to look at Judaism wholistically, organismically and as a civilization for us to move forward together into the future.
12 comments:
"their views aren't meaningless just because one group says all the others are wrong"
All views, except the one that says the above statement is wrong.
Alex,
Indeed, but still not meaningless.
Ortho
which quadrant is 1,2,3 and 4
I dont see a label.
I'd be sitting with you in the front seat on the right.
I'll give my self a high grade for open mindedness, although I am a little more dogmaticly skeptical than you are, so I'll take a six point five. As for my observence, that is best expressed graphicaly with derivative calculus, lets define it: x as it approaches the limit of negative infinity...
This reminds me of Emile Durkheim's grid for assessing social status in a given society. I found it cumbersome when I first read it but it did have value for interpolating data. (Please don't ask me to expound more, I've suppressed most of it from the trauma).
Let's see where your grid takes us.
-Smoo
Too mathematical... I will just say I am MOd Ortho - works for me....
Happy,
"which quadrant is 1,2,3 and 4
I dont see a label."
Oh, sorry. The quadrants in geometry go counterclockwise with quadrant I forming the top right.
So it would look like this:
21
34
Ben,
"I am a little more dogmaticly skeptical than you are, so I'll take a six point five"
Dogmatically skeptical...interesting. I had that consideration in mind, but I just didn't think many people would catch onto the ambiguity of the term "dogmatic" as you have.
Maybe "traditional dogmatic" would have been more in line what I was looking for, but even here it's hard to pin down specifics.
Smoo,
"Let's see where your grid takes us."
I'm thinking about making some sort of quiz, kinda like thw one you see for the "World's Smallest Political Quiz." But that's still tentative. I'd be very curious to see how people would find themselves on the grid.
Frumgirl,
"Too mathematical... I will just say I am MOd Ortho - works for me...."
The whole point of the graph is to show you how ambiguous that term can be. One can be a "lefty" politically, but that could encompass all the way from communists to anarchists and there is little to show those views being similar.
An MO could possibly be almost anywhere on the graph, but realistically you could find them anywhere on the right-hand side.
Very interesting - I really like the grid approach to categorizing oneself, much more so than some stupid label. I would put myself at about 9 on the freethinking spectrum and 7 for observance level.
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