Just as there are no pure races, we are told, so are there no pure religions. Powerful intellectual currents, many of them of secular provenance, also contribute to the diffusion and vitality of religious syncretism. Postmodernists tend to doubt the existence both of a self perduring through time and of an external reality that constrains definition and interpretation. With these ideo logical weapons in their armamentarium, postmodernists are well-positioned to deconstruct all claims of irrevocable identity and exclusive allegiance. The world is becoming a mixed bag a salad bowl.
More people hyphenate their beliefs.
And the foundation of that position is the claim that, in matters of religious belief and practice, personal preference is supreme, not only empirically but also normatively. Ms. Davidoff s rabbinical critics do not doubt the existence of hyphenation any more than she does. What they doubt is its legitimacy . The basis for that doubt within the world of Jewish law is not hard to find. We can answer with great certainty the young Unitarian minister s query with which we began.