Religious thinking is an intellectual endeavor out of the depths of reason. It is a source of cognitive insight into the ultimate issues of human existence. Religion is more than a mood or  a feeling. Judaism, for example, is a way of thinking and a way of living. Unless we understand its categories, its mode of apprehension and evaluation, its teaching remains unintelligible.

A.J. Heschel, Religion in a Free Society, in The Insecurity of Freedom, p 4