<b>Why have the monotheistic religions failed to produce societies that live up to their ethical ideals? A prominent rabbi answers this question by looking at his own faith and offering a way for religion to heal itself.</b><br><br>In <i>Putting God Second</i>, Rabbi Donniel Hartman tackles one of modern life’s most urgent and vexing questions: Why are the great monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—chronically unable to fulfill their own self-professed goal to create individuals infused with moral sensitivity and societies governed by the highest ethical standards? To answer this question, Hartman takes a sober look at the moral peaks and valleys of his own tradition, Judaism, and diagnoses it with a combination of clarity, creativity, and erudition. Hartman argues that monotheism’s record of ethical failure isn’t the result of religion’s evil or of pure human weakness; instead, it’s a tension internal to religious faith. In<i>Putting God Second</i>, Hartman offers a deeply researched and thoroughly humane argument that religious people everywhere should put the ethical treatment of others first—and put God second. For as long as devotion to God comes first, responsibility to other people—God’s true purpose for humanity—will trail far, far behind.