Edited and compiled by Dr. Mel Scult
The Kaplan Center is honored to promote Dr. Mel Scult’s newest book to be released November 26, 2026!
“The happiest moments in my life these days are those which I experience whenever I receive letters from Mel Scult.”
— Mordecai M. Kaplan, Diary entry, 1974
A foundational work in modern Jewish thought, The Religious Humanism of Mordecai Kaplan: An Anthology presents the radical and enduring philosophy of one of the most influential religious thinkers of the 20th century.
“This volume will be valuable to those familiar with Kaplan and to any person who studies or teaches religion—rabbis, laymen, students, and seekers alike. Kaplan wrote on a level which remains relevant for the ages.”
— Prof. Mel Scult, from the Foreword
In a landscape of rising religious fundamentalism, The Religious Humanism of Mordecai Kaplan: An Anthology stands as a major intellectual achievement. It explores the work of a theological rebel—a fiercely independent thinker who rejected supernatural beliefs and was formally excommunicated by the Orthodox rabbinical establishment in 1945, yet remained devoted to confronting the world’s biggest ideas.
Kaplan maintained a 27-volume personal journal mapping his theology. In this remarkable volume, Professor Mel Scult creates a compelling dialogue: quoting directly from Kaplan’s diary entries and offering expert insight into how these encounters shaped his philosophy.
Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881–1983) was a groundbreaking rabbi, philosopher, and founder of the Reconstructionist movement. He instituted the first American Bat Mitzvah for his daughter Judith in 1922. As a longtime professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, his naturalistic theology and innovations left a lasting mark on modern American Judaism.
MEL SCULT (left, pictured with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, right) is a premier Kaplan scholar and Vice President of the Mordecai M. Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood. The author of several definitive biographies and studies on Kaplan, he has spent over fifty years editing, teaching, and making Kaplan’s vast textual and diary legacy accessible to the modern world. He has lectured widely at universities and congregations here and in Israel. He is ready to offer talks in connection with his book. Please contact him at admin@KaplanCenter.org.
Read the reviews!
Times of Israel review (8/27/2026) by Rabbi Dennis Sasso
Endorsement by Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor (emeritus), Brandeis University:
Mel Scult is Mordecai Kaplan’s most ardent disciple. He has devoted the bulk of his life – more than fifty years – to studying, publishing, annotating, elucidating, and promoting Kaplan’s work. Nothing Kaplan-related is foreign to him. Here Scult distills his vast knowledge into a short readable anthology of the master’s writings concerning a wide range of theological and practical Jewish matters, along with diary comments, revealing anecdotes, Scult’s own personal reflections, and an invaluable annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Kaplan devotees and anyone interested in Jewish religious humanism will welcome this volume.