Protestant model— a kind of modern Karaism to a rabbinic model is the result of many factors, not the least of which are the Shoah, the rebirth of Israel , the rise of ethnicity with an attendant search for authenticity, and the demise of the Western philosophical models for creating authoritative positions.
A chronological examination of the Platforms of Reform Judaism from Pittsburgh 1885 to Pittsburgh 1999 provides a shorthand description of the development of contemporary American Reform Judaism . The Platforms begin with philosophical and theological certainty and move toward greater diversity and ambiguity. Reform Judaism moves from being confident that its break with many traditional rabbinic and biblical patterns represents Judaism as an authentic wave of the future that will supplant the others toward a broadly liberal group seeking relationship with and guidance from the totality of Jewish tradition. To comprehend this development it is necessary to cite the relevant passages from each platform in extenso.
We recognize in the Bible the record of the consecration of the Jewish people to its mission as the priest of the one God , and value it as the most potent instrument of religious and moral instruction. We hold that the modern discoveries of scientific researches in the domain of nature and history are not antagonistic to the doctrines of Judaism , the Bible reflecting the primitive ideas of its own age, and at times clothing its conception of