Towers of Babel: The Concept of Religious Truth According to Jonathan Sacks

This paper will explore the concept of religious truth according to Jonathan Sacks. It will take a particular approach which will show how his reading and re-examination of scriptural and interpretative commentary allowed for him to build a concept of religious truth which did not depend completely, and was even often at odds with, the western philosophical trends by which he was influenced. Many of Sacks’ discussions on the idea of religious truth were explored through his commentary, building on earlier commentaries, of biblical narratives. This paper will examine one particular biblical image – that of the Tower of Babel – a theme which remained resonant for the twenty years of his writing. This paper will draw on little-known writings on Babel, as well as those more commonly known, and seek to locate them amidst his developing religious, ethical and political thought. Through doing so, I will propose that Sacks’ concept of religious truth is akin to the “aggadic pluralism” he propounded – and in this sense dependent on a biblical hermeneutic.

This model will then be analysed according to contemporary Jewish thinkers, setting the thought of Sacks into today’s contemporaneous thinking on religious truth – encompassing some of the critical aspects of considerations of religious truth – especially that of monotheism.