What is Polydox Judaism?
The answer to this question is best answered by the website created by it's founder, the late Rabbi Alvin J. Reines, but here is some of it in part:
1Q. What is a "polydoxy”?
1A. A polydoxy is a religion whose fundamental principle is that every person is her or his own ultimate religious authority with the right, therefore, to accept and follow whichever religious beliefs and observances she or he thinks true and meaningful. Accordingly, members of the same polydox community (a religious community that subscribes to a polydoxy) may hold different views on such subjects as the meaning of the word God or the existence and nature of an afterlife. All members’ beliefs regarding the great subjects of religion are equally acceptable so far as the polydox community as a whole is concerned. (Members of a community that subscribes to an orthodox religion, by contrast, are all required to accept fundamentally the same religious beliefs and to follow basically the same ritual observances.) The fundamental principle of a polydoxy may be stated in terms of a covenant, the Covenant of Freedom: Every member of a polydox community pledges to affirm the freedom of all other members in return for their pledges to affirm her or his own. Equally binding in a polydoxy is the corollary of the Covenant of Freedom: Every member’s freedom ends where the other members’ freedom begins.
2Q. What is Polydox Judaism?
2A. Polydox Judaism is the polydox religion of Jews. Comment: The term “polydoxy," like the term "orthodoxy," refers to the general nature of a religion: whether it is authoritarian or free. Orthodox religions are authoritarian; polydox religions are free. Just as orthodox religions are not necessarily Jewish, witness the Eastern Orthodox Church and Orthodox Islam, so polydox religions are not necessarily Jewish.
3Q. ls Polydox Judaism a new religion?
3A. Yes. It may also be said that it is a new "Jewish" religion or "Judaism." Comment: For a full understanding of the answer to this question it is important to recognize that Polydox Judaism is not the first new Jewish religion. On the contrary, the scientific study of the religious history of the Jews reveals that a number of new Jewish religions emerged over the ages in response to new intellectual, economic, political, and cultural conditions. Thus prophetic ethical monotheism was a new religion superseding an earlier lsraelite polytheism and henotheism; Pharisaic Judaism differed essentially from the Sadducean Judaism it replaced; Maimonidean philosophic Judaism is a totally different religion from Hasidic Judaism. Interesting to note, all presently existing Judaisms were at one time "new” Jewish religions, that is, no religion which can be said to have been the original "Judaism" presently exists.
4Q. What is Jewish about Polydox Judaism?
4A. Once it is recognized that there have been a series of new and different Jewish religions over the ages, this question can be answered simply. A religion is Jewish, that is, a religion is a "Judaism," if it has been created by Jews as the religious expression of their Jewishness. New Jewish religions or Judaisms arise when Jews of some particular age find that the Judaism they have inherited is no longer responsive to their ultimate concerns. Based on the realities of Jewish history, the rule can be laid down that all given "Judaisms" of an age are those that Jews of the age say they are.
5Q. Aside from the fact that Polydox Judaism is a Jewish emergent, does it possess other Jewish characteristics?
5A. Yes. As an emergent from other Judaisms, Polydox Judaism possesses a number of similar characteristics. A loose analogy may be drawn between a child’s relation to its parents and Polydox Judaism’s relation to the Judaisms from which it emerged: The child is a separate individual, but it will in some respects resemble its parents owing to its genetic and cultural inheritance. Likewise, Polydox Judaism is a separate individual but it possesses a heritage of various characteristics similar to those of the Judaisms from which it has emerged. This heritage includes a treasury of religious and theological literature, concepts, and symbols.
1A. A polydoxy is a religion whose fundamental principle is that every person is her or his own ultimate religious authority with the right, therefore, to accept and follow whichever religious beliefs and observances she or he thinks true and meaningful. Accordingly, members of the same polydox community (a religious community that subscribes to a polydoxy) may hold different views on such subjects as the meaning of the word God or the existence and nature of an afterlife. All members’ beliefs regarding the great subjects of religion are equally acceptable so far as the polydox community as a whole is concerned. (Members of a community that subscribes to an orthodox religion, by contrast, are all required to accept fundamentally the same religious beliefs and to follow basically the same ritual observances.) The fundamental principle of a polydoxy may be stated in terms of a covenant, the Covenant of Freedom: Every member of a polydox community pledges to affirm the freedom of all other members in return for their pledges to affirm her or his own. Equally binding in a polydoxy is the corollary of the Covenant of Freedom: Every member’s freedom ends where the other members’ freedom begins.
2Q. What is Polydox Judaism?
2A. Polydox Judaism is the polydox religion of Jews. Comment: The term “polydoxy," like the term "orthodoxy," refers to the general nature of a religion: whether it is authoritarian or free. Orthodox religions are authoritarian; polydox religions are free. Just as orthodox religions are not necessarily Jewish, witness the Eastern Orthodox Church and Orthodox Islam, so polydox religions are not necessarily Jewish.
3Q. ls Polydox Judaism a new religion?
3A. Yes. It may also be said that it is a new "Jewish" religion or "Judaism." Comment: For a full understanding of the answer to this question it is important to recognize that Polydox Judaism is not the first new Jewish religion. On the contrary, the scientific study of the religious history of the Jews reveals that a number of new Jewish religions emerged over the ages in response to new intellectual, economic, political, and cultural conditions. Thus prophetic ethical monotheism was a new religion superseding an earlier lsraelite polytheism and henotheism; Pharisaic Judaism differed essentially from the Sadducean Judaism it replaced; Maimonidean philosophic Judaism is a totally different religion from Hasidic Judaism. Interesting to note, all presently existing Judaisms were at one time "new” Jewish religions, that is, no religion which can be said to have been the original "Judaism" presently exists.
4Q. What is Jewish about Polydox Judaism?
4A. Once it is recognized that there have been a series of new and different Jewish religions over the ages, this question can be answered simply. A religion is Jewish, that is, a religion is a "Judaism," if it has been created by Jews as the religious expression of their Jewishness. New Jewish religions or Judaisms arise when Jews of some particular age find that the Judaism they have inherited is no longer responsive to their ultimate concerns. Based on the realities of Jewish history, the rule can be laid down that all given "Judaisms" of an age are those that Jews of the age say they are.
5Q. Aside from the fact that Polydox Judaism is a Jewish emergent, does it possess other Jewish characteristics?
5A. Yes. As an emergent from other Judaisms, Polydox Judaism possesses a number of similar characteristics. A loose analogy may be drawn between a child’s relation to its parents and Polydox Judaism’s relation to the Judaisms from which it emerged: The child is a separate individual, but it will in some respects resemble its parents owing to its genetic and cultural inheritance. Likewise, Polydox Judaism is a separate individual but it possesses a heritage of various characteristics similar to those of the Judaisms from which it has emerged. This heritage includes a treasury of religious and theological literature, concepts, and symbols.
Please go to the Polydox Institute's website,located here, for further information. Many thanks to the website's owner for providing this information.