The book, first delivered in 1997 as the Sherman Lectures in the Department of Religions and Theology at Manchester University (UK), argued that the Haskalah should be understood within the context of wider Central European religious and intellectual changes rather than as a singular Jewish phenomenon.
[14][11] The American Historical Review described Sorkin's The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews, and Catholics from London to Vienna as a work that makes "very interesting discoveries about the parallel developments within different religions in the eighteenth century."
Similarly, The New York Times described it as a "persuasive work" about how "Europe's major religions produced movements of religious reform compatible with the enlightenment.
"[15] Central European History reviewed it as a book of "very great importance, for early modernists and modern historians alike.
"[16] Sorkin has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1994-5) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2005–06).