Please do disrupt! Your thoughts are always welcome. I think what I'm addressing may be slightly different, but it could also be that we're using different vocabulary to say the same thing. Avi is very much a rationalist. From what I know of him, he seems to see religious practice, mysticism and the like as things that ought to be done away with. This is very much a classical Reform view, something that's a bit more rare today. For me it's better to hold onto all of that. What I think you're referring to is the type of person who goes with religious practice and belief but it remains something external. I don't see Avi that way. I think he's just very concerned with the rejection of all non-rational elements of religion in favor of a moral philosophy of religion. It's actually the very reason I suggested that book to him. I thought it'd jive with his views.