Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God

Rating:
Summary: When gods learn contrition
Review: Miles' earlier work on a desert people's god, "God: A Biography," focused on a deity new at the job. Miles' portrayal depicted a god learning the role. He's inconsistent, breaks promises, commits genocide and grows increasingly dictatorial. At one point, a single man challenges him, winning a moral victory which clearly disturbs this irrational spirit. Finally, like an elderly curmudgeon, the deity simply withdraws from those he wishes to worship him.

According to Miles, after a long span of time the god has learned remorse. He has subjected his followers to a succession of invasions and dispersals. Israel becomes a client state of the Assyrians, Babylon, Greece, and now, Rome. As with many aged, powerful men, the god has reflected on his own actions and decided some positive actions are in order. He doesn't consider his career a failure, but discerns humanity's course isn't following its destined path. Genocide and other manifestations of his power are no longer the answer. A new course is necessary, so he becomes the Incarnation - a deity housed in a human body.

Miles portrayal of Christ's life shows how poorly this deity understands his creation. After all, as a god with neither peers nor serious challengers, he fails to understand human characteristics. Throughout the account, Christ is ambivalent in his assigned role. He shifts from expressing his divinity to being but a man, confused and perplexed by the role forced on him. He doesn't question his fate, knowing, at least in his adult life, that he is to be sacrificed. He understands the need for his role, but anticipates the pain as any of us would.

Miles relates how uncertainty leads to ambivalence in the behaviour of this Incarnation. Repelling followers at first, he begins gathering adherents, but, they too, are confused. Mostly Jews, his recruits think his mission is to restore Israel as promised. When they fail to understand his claim to a wider mission, they fail to comprehend. How can this "messiah" claim to redeem Israel when he offers succor to strangers and enemies? When he dies in such squalid circumstances, a social criminal, the distress among his followers is intense. Miles notes the significance of such a death, describing it as "a huge and horrifying surprise". Christ has not imparted his knowledge of the finale, leaving his followers confused and adrift. Even the resurrection seems hardly worthy of notice. There's no grandeur, no powerful declarations, little drama. The meaning of it all must be derived over time until the deity's original intention can be imparted to others. The result is not the god's accomplishment, but the people who had faith in the idea and imparted it to others.

Miles' account is full of inconsistencies and elf-contradictions. These are not author's faults, however, resulting instead from the material he consults and brings to our view. The Incarnation is as inconsistent as his "father," which isn't surprising given his previous career. Christ asserts the teachings of the Prophets foretell his coming, yet the god Miles portrays seems to know nothing of "love" in those days, particularly love of all humanity. The god's focus, promises and failures, are for Israel alone. How then, does this deity in its human incarnation, expect anyone to believe his new identity? Miles concludes that the act of sacrifice is self-explanatory needing no further elaboration.

Miles postscripts the story with a literary analysis of its telling. One interesting facet is the Bible's use of irony. Irony uses or "double meaning, or reversal of meaning. . . and will not stoop to explanation." He suggests that in this case, long-standing practices are suddenly reversed, then there is a place for irony in religion. He admits to the novelty of the concept, but argues that it fits the Judeo-Christian story. It's a compelling and challenging idea, but then, so is this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Gospels as a Work of Art
Review: Mr. Miles drives past the Jesus Seminarians, the historical Jesus freaks, and the Q gospel talking heads, toiling away with their picks and shovels, and says let's look at the gospels (primarily the Gospel of John) in a different way...as a piece of literature, a sort of historical novel, and see if that allows us to gain a better understanding of the main character, God.

That literary (not to be confused with literal) approach gives the reader a real sense of freedom from the heavy wet blankets of theological reverence (...God does not make mistakes!) and biblical historocity (...did this really happen?...can we attribute that saying directly to Jesus?), and allows him or her to reflect on the radical difference between God as presented in the Old Testament and God as presented incarnate as Jesus Christ.

How does one reconcile the God that appeared to Joshua, with sword drawn, as the Commander of Lord's Hosts, "the divine warrior in person," ready to lead the victorious assault on Israel's enemies in the battle of Jerico, with the God who delivered the Sermon on the Mount? How does God go from promising to crush Israel's enemies and restore a great, powerful and independent Israel, to being the God who declares victory by saying, "Take heart, I have conquered the world" just before he surrenders himself to be crucified by the hated Roman conqerers of Israel? Mr. Miles, accepting the gospel premise that Jesus is God, taking the stories in the bible at face value, weaves in the context of the times, first century Jewish culture, and God's previous covenant and history with Israel, and provides some elegant and provocative answers.

Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God is enlightening, thought provoking, provocative, blah, blah blah. I recommend it because it is such a refreshing and challenging approach to this subject. Literary perspective or not, make no mistake about it, Mr. Miles is quite serious about the underlying moral theology that is the message of the gospels. It's just that he presents the subject in such a facinating way, he makes it fun to just sit back and go for the ride.

Give yourself a treat, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: research
Review: Occasionally I found myself agreeing with Mr. Miles but mostly by coincidence. "Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God" is silly in the childish sence of the word. I think Mr. Miles had better go recheck his sources.

Rating:
Summary: Another Pulitzer??
Review: Pulitzer prize winning author Jack Miles, who wrote "God: A Biography", has finished in this work what he started in the other: a biographical analysis of God that developes both his character and characteristics throughout the writings of the old and new testaments. Written from a literary critic's perspective, Miles makes its clear from the beginning that his is not a historical or theological exegesis---something some reviewers have been in error to have expected. As such, Miles freely allows his character to to go where the literature of the bible takes him and to evolve plotwise from expectant creator, to general and ogre, to finally a loving father..

The outstanding contribution of Mile's book is the way it traces God's role from Israel's defender, to Israel's punisher, to finally the impotent (in this world) suffering servant who crucifies himself just before the entire country is about to be crucified along with him in the 70 AD and 135 AD rebellions against Rome. One can clearly see the changing motifs of the biblical writers as promise after promise in the bible fails to materialize and they are forced to literarily justify these failings in order to protect the integrity of their god. In the end, God's power is shifted to the next world and away from this one, in much the same way that Paul's theology shifted the second coming from this world to the next when it became obvious that it wasnt going to happen within his lifetime (read 1st Cor, 7:29). Miles, true to his committment to not render historical or theological conclusions, never explicitly says this, but it is obvious to anyone carefully reading the text.

I highly recommend this book for the reasons stated above, and would add that works such as Mile's go far towards the prospect of clarifying humanity's relationship with what Freud called the "hysteria" that humans feel when they, unlike any other animal on the planet (to our present knowledge), comprehend that their own life has an end..

Rating:
Summary: Another Pulitzer??
Review: Pulitzer prize winning author Jack Miles, who wrote "God: A Biography", has finished in this work what he started in the other: a biographical analysis of God that developes both his character and characteristics throughout the writings of the old and new testaments. Written from a literary critic's perspective, Miles makes its clear from the beginning that his is not a historical or theological exegesis---something some reviewers have been in error to have expected. As such, Miles freely allows his character to to go where the literature of the bible takes him and to evolve plotwise from expectant creator, to general and ogre, to finally a loving father..

The outstanding contribution of Mile's book is the way it traces God's role from Israel's defender, to Israel's punisher, to finally the impotent (in this world) suffering servant who crucifies himself just before the entire country is about to be crucified along with him in the 70 AD and 135 AD rebellions against Rome. One can clearly see the changing motifs of the biblical writers as promise after promise in the bible fails to materialize and they are forced to literarily justify these failings in order to protect the integrity of their god. In the end, God's power is shifted to the next world and away from this one, in much the same way that Paul's theology shifted the second coming from this world to the next when it became obvious that it wasnt going to happen within his lifetime (read 1st Cor, 7:29). Miles, true to his committment to not render historical or theological conclusions, never explicitly says this, but it is obvious to anyone carefully reading the text.

I highly recommend this book for the reasons stated above, and would add that works such as Mile's go far towards the prospect of clarifying humanity's relationship with what Freud called the "hysteria" that humans feel when they, unlike any other animal on the planet (to our present knowledge), comprehend that their own life has an end..

Rating:
Summary: Worthless Content
Review: The author presents a God that fails in His goal to protect Israel from Rome and so He is forced to develop a posture of weakness to try and humiliate those that are strong. His parody is to try and show that there is no God, only mans attempt to bring together actual events alongside the continued presence of God in the world.

This book fails as a serious investigation, and as for literary entertainment - making jokes of serious moral issues just plain doesn’t work. To name a few problems: The author ignores many events in the Bible and in others suggests subtleties that are clearly out of line; all to suit his needs. He follows a strict literal interpretation ignoring historical and cultural context, and uses the Gospel of John as representative of all Synoptic Gospels. The one point the author makes is repeated throughout the book. It reminds me of a painter that starts off with a bright color and ends up painting the entire canvas in the same color.

Jesus Christ’s ideas are provocative, because they represent a painful leap that man undertook to accept a further advancement in moral development. In our attempt to understand God it helps to keep in mind the Old Testament words: “My thoughts are not your thoughts”. We may find that Jesus’ ideas are not so new if we search to find the “still, small voice” of God in the Old Testament.

Rating:
Summary: Right, I agree. Read SB 1 or God as well
Review: This is a brave write, most people who trully believe in Christ would never think of crossing the lines so boldly. The fact that God could be imperfect and admit imperfection has caused us to fail, needing the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. This book covers the bases quite extensively, Jack is more than well versed, from the way he writes, he has a super clear understanding of the way each book in the Bible was meant to be interpreted by it's original writers. That was accomplished by a great deal of research, very evident in this very strongly supported book. I am happy with it, brings a new twist of reality that is faith strengthening.

I want to recommend another good book that uses finger print writing style (Of Moses ect.) to get the crisis straight, also of Christ's true purpose, SB 1 or God By Karl Mark Maddox

Rating:
Summary: A creative and inspiring meditation
Review: This is a work of vast erudition, and its extremely clever author deserves the benefit of the doubt from his readers. Many reviewers of both this book and the author's previous book on the Tanakh (aka God: A Biography) evidently assume that there is something whimsical, shallow and capricious--even blasphemous--about Miles' meditation on the evolving character within history of the God of the Old Testament, and in this book, of God Incarnate as he is revealed in the New Testament. On the contrary, while highly original and beautifully written, to a Nietzchean level which is capable of glossing over weak or even dangerous arguments with lovely and sometimes thrilling prose--this book is in fact fundamentally grounded in some of the most recent, and exciting works of Biblical scholarship written in the last decade or so.

Before questioning the author's intentions, it might be wise to read two splendid commentaries on the New Testament, Moloney's commentary on the Gospel of John and Byrne's commentary on Romans, both published as part of the Catholic "Sacra Pagina" series and available on Amazon. These commentaries address the profound harmonies between Judaism and Christianity, and provide plenty of objective buttressing for the arguments put forward in a very readable and thought-provoking way by Miles.

It is true that the idea which Miles may consider the keynote of his thesis--his revision of the doctrine of atonement--will be rejected by believing Christians, and there is certainly nothing in the above-mentioned commentaries that supports Miles on that point. But this is a clearly demarcated part of his thesis, and the close and fascinating reading of the New Testament, principally the Gospel of John, that emerges from Miles' analysis follows the Scripture closely and is unrelated to Miles' unnecessarily provocative original contribution to the doctrine of atonement.

Often Miles adopts a rhetorical strategy that seems to distance himself from Christian belief, but this is generally a pose which allows him to maintain his scholarly credentials while taking the Scripture at face value. It might also be useful to read Leo Strauss's "Persecution and the Art of Writing" in order to understand Miles' strategy of creating enough intellectual elbow-room amidst the aridity and reductionism of historical Biblical criticism in order to propose his creative and generally reverent ideas.

Enjoy Miles's dazzling intellectual performance, but take him seriously as well. This is a very stimulating work that has an important place in the evolving reconciliation between Christianity and Judaism. One does not have to agree with everything in it to enjoy many benefits from Miles' thinking. It is a splendid and humane work of the religious imagination.