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Title: God: A Biography by Jack Miles ISBN: 0-679-74368-5 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 March, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (47 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A thought-provoking biography
Comment: This is a daring, ambitious, complex, thought-provoking book. My reaction is mixed. On the positive side, I admire the author's largely successful attempt to look at the character of "God" from a fresh perspective, that of a complex character as revealed only in the pages of the Bible, rather than the God of an often uncritical religious dogma. On the negative side, Miles:
* Makes a lot of assumptions and conclusions that do not seem warranted. For example, in Chapter 2, "Generation," Miles says about God's command "Let there be light" that "One does not speak commandingly to oneself. It is rather as if a carpenter reaching for a hammer were to speak the word 'hammer' aloud." What is the author's point? If a witch or wizard speaks a spell or incantation to summon magical or natural forces, the spell caster speaks not to herself but rather to the source of the forces being summoned. I was especially uneasy with Miles' assumptions about details of God's existence that are based not only on what is explicitly stated in the Bible, but also on what is left unsaid. In the life of any significant literary character, can we automatically assume that anything about the character that is not explicitly stated does not exist? For me, the answer is "No." As I continued through the book, I found myself repeatedly in disagreement with the validity of the assumptions upon which many of the author's conclusions were based.
* Is often needlessly verbose.
* Writes in a stilted style that I often found irritating. I particularly did not enjoy his often pedantic tone, his seemingly gratuitous use of needlessly esoteric verbiage, and his use of the "royal 'we.'" The frequent use of "we" would not have bothered me so much if I had felt that it implied a sort of partnership between author and reader, but too often that seemed not to be the case.
My recommendation: If you are open-minded and are interested in theology, religious history, and literary analysis, then read this book and arrive at your own conclusions.
This review is based on the paperback version of the book.
Rating: 4
Summary: God: The things people have said about Me
Comment: This is a very interesting book. Although Jack Miles states that one need not be either a believer in the Judeo-Christian concept of God or an unbeliever to appreciate the book, still this reviewer thinks that only those committed to this tradition will bother to read it.
The author takes the unusual approach of treating the main character in the Jewish Bible (Christian Old Testament) "God" as a literary character and then explores how this character changed substantially during the thousand year history that is recorded in the Bible.
The reader should be forewarned that if you are a real believer, then you will find yourself shouting on nearly every page, "That is not God". If you are not clear that this "God" is being treated only from a literary point of view, you will not comprehend the main thrust.
Judaism and Christianity are both "historical" religions. This means, among other things, that the validity of its central teachings depends upon the real occurrence of some historical events, unlike a religion such as Buddhism where the validity depends upon logic and personal experience alone. Yet none of the incidents and ideas expressed in the Bible were written by people who treated events the way a modern historian would treat them. The philosophical and theological sophistication of the various Biblical writers (and their numerous editors) vary tremendously. The concept of God that Moses probably had would differ significantly from that of a modern day Jew or Christian. The working assumption of a modern believer would be that his/her concept of God is accurate, and consequently someone else's concept would be inaccurate insofar as they differ. So the major question at stake for a modern believer would be "Is my concept of God a genuine organic development from that of the Biblical writers (so that our concepts, though different, represent the same God), or does my concept make any less accurate concept as found in the Bible guilty of error/heresy?"
If the reader's answer encompasses organic development, then it should be smooth sailing; if not, then batten down the hatches! The book also strongly hints that the current monotheistic concept of God contains so many different aspects that our current intelligence cannot fit these into a neat rational synthesis. Should this really be a surprise that the Transcendent Creator of the universe, including our limited finite intellects, must remain somewhat mysterious to us?
The book is an eye-opener for anyone who thinks the Bible has been transmitted to us in a manner equivalent to a classical theology textbook. If "God" had chosen to compose the Bible as a textbook, then it would have been much more "accurate", yet probably much more boring and lifeless. This reviewer thinks "God" knew the better way to do it. Remember, this book is not the Bible itself, not the Word of God, but it is a worthwhile literary commentary.
Rating: 4
Summary: Who judges whom?
Comment: This book should be required reading in the public schools. Jack Miles presents a god who is far from perfect and far from all knowing. For far too long man has lived under the belief that a god would someday judge him, if there was a god, it would be man who should be the judge, god could rest in the knowledge that mankind is far more merciful than himself.
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Title: Christ : A Crisis in the Life of God by Jack Miles ISBN: 0679781609 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong ISBN: 0345384563 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 09 August, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman ISBN: 0060630353 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 07 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Moses : A Life by Jonathan Kirsch ISBN: 0345412702 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Left Hand of God : A Biography of the Holy Spirit by ADOLF HOLL ISBN: 0385492855 Publisher: Image Books Pub. Date: 09 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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