This book is a major contribution to the sociology of religion and to religious and biblical studies. Beginning from the classic work of Max Weber, the author analyses the origins of Judaism in the light of more recent scholarship. The result is a work that will become a standard point of reference in its field, and will be of great interest to the general reader as well as the specialist.

Irvine Zeitlin is Professor of Sociology at te University of Toronto. His previous publications include Rethinking Sociology (1973), Ideology and the Developement of Sociological Theory (1981), and The Social Conditions of Humanity (1984).