Ziauddin Sardar reviews Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' new book

GOD AND SCIENCE: Ziauddin Sardar reviews Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning. "But despite an unavoidable weakness in his argument, Sacks is engaging and thought-provoking throughout. His exploration of the deep difference between classical Greek and Hebrew thought - the being rooted in universals, and the latter in particulars – is quite brilliant. Philosophers, concerned with the Truth and the Good opted for universal principles, while the Talmud discussions simply report the (frequently contradictory) sayings of eminent rabbis on a problem. The synthesis of the two approaches, first realised in the Greek-language accounts of the life of a rabbi called Jesus, lasted until the scientific revolution. By then, the Reformation had displayed the fatal divisions in religious teaching, and so philosophers turned to science for security. The resulting secularisation, evolving over centuries, is seen by Sacks and his sources (religious and irreligious alike) as the root of many of our current discontents." Read on.