Why Liberal Religion Is Losing Ground

Rabbi David Wolpe has spent his career thinking seriously about belief. He debated the New Atheists at the height of their influence, led one of the largest synagogues in the country, taught at Harvard Divinity School, and has written widely about theology in the modern age. Along the way, Newsweek once named him the most influential rabbi in America, and The Jerusalem Post listed him among the 50 most influential Jews in the world.

Wolpe now sees liberal religion in clear decline, and argues that a vast and often neglected space exists between believing in an old man in the sky who dispenses rewards and punishments, and dismissing religion as absurd.

I sat down with Wolpe to talk about the challenge modernity poses to faith, and his case for religion without literalism. Without a religious foundation, he argues, societies begin to drift toward anomie and meaninglessness. When we see these trends emerging in America, we’re really seeing a society that has absorbed religious moral norms while abandoning the beliefs behind them.

In our conversation, we also discussed rising antisemitism, what he saw on Harvard’s campus after October 7, and whether Zionism is still a useful concept.