Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Fine book but contains a major factual error that dilutes it Review: Interesting approach and worth reading. But it contains a major factual error, claiming that the name of Moses's father is not in the Bible (wrong -- all one needs to do is read Exodus)and drawing a significant conclusion from that erroneous premise. More disturbing, I wrote to the author well over one year ago when I first read the book and found the error. I pointed it out. Never heard from him
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: New wine in new wineskins. Review: Setting: The dawn of Judao-Christian history.
Characters: God, God's creation and you.
Enter Moses the aged story teller of the Pentateuch. As he peers into the darkness, the Divine Being emerges and encounters the human animal for the first time. In what appears to be an unfolding of God's personality, salvation history begins its course. God comes into his being and runs an eternal lab of experiments as he finds himself. As God continues to become more comfortable with the divine nature, humans grow into and become more comfortable with their creaturliness.
Jack Miles fills in the gaps of salvation history by using literary liberty. He says what is left unsaid in Holy Scripture and the death of God is resurrected through actions and stories. Miles injects the salvation stories with, sometimes, too human questions. He includes all the questions Abraham to Zephaniah should have asked but didn't. These questions enliven the book with humor and even sadness. All parts of our human experience, happiness, sadness, encounters with the divine and salvation, are explored in this masterpiece. Jack Miles pours new wine into new wineskins.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Compare chapter on JOB with the Melian Dialouge Review: If we accept Jack Miles retranslation, the Book of Job should be read side by side with the Melian Dialouge from Thucidydies. For the Athenians at Melos, justice was relevant only among equals in power. The "strong do what they will & the weak suffer what they must." The Athenians do unto the Melians precisely because they believe the Melians would do unto them given the chance. The Golden Rule becomes "Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you!"
In Miles translation, JOB is defiant to the end, "... now that my eyes have seen you, I shudder with sorrow for mortal clay."
The Lord God, however, unlike the Athenians does not crush JOB but restores his position. Miles reminds us that the story revolves around a wager between Satan and God. Satan tells God that Job worships out of eagerness for reward or fear of punishment. When Job defies the UNIDENTIFIED VOICE speaking from the vortex, he denies that Might makes Right and therefore reaffirms that his love of God DOES NOT derive from fear of punishment or promise of reward.
Miles translation of Job's final answer allows God to win the wager with Satan. Miles also suggests, as have others, that Western Civ was largely formed by the interplay between our intellectual heritage arising in Athens and the heritage arising in Jerusalem. His retranslation of JOB becomes one of the earliest declarations that justice is to be valued for its own sake whether or not a reward or punishment is expected.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Excellent book to discuss in a family setting. Review: I am halfway through the book and find myself e-mailing my son 1100 miles away after completing each chapter. Our family has enjoyed naming each other nicknames and finding God also has a number of 'names' has given us lots of laughs. Jack Miles reference to the possibility that women have written or influenced the writing of the Bible is not overlooked as is the case in many biblical studies. I am interested in learning more about Jack Miles. He seems
to understand Greek-lore, use of symbols as a Jungian, and
has a fun way of inviting the reader to research root words.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Scholarly look at God's development in OT as lit chararacter Review: Terrific book. You've never read anything like it. Read the treatment of JOB; read about the God of Creation; read about how GOD CHANGED in the Old Testament. (You'll have to take it from here, as far as God in the New Testament goes.)
You'll be going repeatedly to your Bible to look things up as you read Miles, thinking THAT can't be in there. But it is, it almost always is.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Brilliant, challenging; sure to be a classic Review: Unlike the "reader" below, I have read Miles' book. I wish to briefly compare it to another best-seller, Karen Armstrong's History of God.
Her's is the better work, but her's is a very different book. Armstrong carefully works through 3,000
years of Jewish, Christian and Muslim belief in God, explaining how each religion sought to answer similar questions, work through similar experiences (God as remote, God as Personal, etc).
Miles' approach is very different. He takes the Jewish Old Testament (ordered, as it is, differently than the Christian Old Testament),
and carefully, methodically recounts and analyses God's many appearances. Where Armstrong is grounded in years of scholarship, Miles' utilizes literary analysis to investigate the difference between each appearance, the different way in which God reacts to Man and Mankind to God.
Miles does not except each reader to agree with him, but the reader who does read Miles' book will find his own beliefs challenged, refreshed, and
yes, maybe even strengthened.
KRH
www.umeais.maine.edu/~hayward
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: I did not like it. Review: I must apologize because I did not truly read this book so I gave it
a 5. I suppose if I had read it I would have given it a 1. I saw an interview with the author and I was disturbed by what I heard. I am a Christian who believes in the sovereignty of the Lord God
Almighty. It is not possible to know and understand God without
first acknowledging Him as the Creator and Sustainer of life. Any
attempt to do otherwise would be neglecting God of His due praise and adoration. I pray that the Lord will open Jack Miles' heart and
show him what he missed when he wrote this book.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Ambitious and Gutsy, but a Great Success Review: What kind of person would have the guts to attempt to write a
biography of God at this late date? In fact, only an ex-Jesuit would be presumptous enough. When this ex-Jesuit happens to be a prominent Biblical scholar who has studied both in Rome
and in Jerusalem, the result is a riveting, humanizing account
of a massive topic. Jack Miles wows us with his knowledge, intrigues us with his interpretations and leaves the reader
with a better appreciation of the complexity of our relationship
to a Supreme Being.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: An amazing work Review: In "God: A Biography," Jack Miles attempts to flesh out, both physically, emotionally and spiritually, the God of the Old Testament. This book is not a typical biography, in that it is not a chronological tellign of God's growth as a person and the major events in his life. Rather, the book is a series of interpretations (and perhaps assumptions) of God's actions and interactions with the Israelites and all of His followers, and as such it succeeds brilliantly. The structure of the book was vital to its success: Miles titles each chapter under a broad element or theme of God's character, and throughout the chapter goes into more minute detail about what God did that brought the author to that decision. The interpretation of God here is near absolute; Miles selects incredibly applicable sections of the Bible from which to come to his hypotheses, and through his lucid and accessible writing one is able to understand God and his metamorphosis from Creator and Friend to recluse and silent observer. This book is a thunderous addition to Christian literature and should be read by all who would like more in-depth idea of God's influence and identity.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: New wine in new wineskins. Review: Setting: The dawn of Judao-Christian history.Characters: God, God's creation and you.Enter Moses the aged story teller of the Pentateuch. As he peers into the darkness, the Divine Being emerges and encounters the human animal for the first time. In what appears to be an unfolding of God's personality, salvation history begins its course. God comes into his being and runs an eternal lab of experiments as he finds himself. As God continues to become more comfortable with the divine nature, humans grow into and become more comfortable with their creaturliness. Jack Miles fills in the gaps of salvation history by using literary liberty. He says what is left unsaid in Holy Scripture and the death of God is resurrected through actions and stories. Miles injects the salvation stories with, sometimes, too human questions. He includes all the questions Abraham to Zephaniah should have asked but didn't. These questions enliven the book with humor and even sadness. All parts of our human experience, happiness, sadness, encounters with the divine and salvation, are explored in this masterpiece. Jack Miles pours new wine into new wineskins.
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