The Original Torah: The Political Intent of the Bible's Writers

Rating:
Summary: astonishing conclusions with wide impact to come
Review: Sperling's new book is certain to have a powerful impact both on Jewish and Christian society, a good impact, but a deeply radical one. No Moses? No Egyptian enslavement? No Abraham? No Exodus? It's all allegory? Once the theory is explained, it becomes painfully evident: the beautiful purposes of the writers of the Torah were to form the hearts and minds of the Jewish people into a community that believed in itself, believed in its God, and took on a mission to become "a light to the Gentiles" as well as a spiritually empowered nation. The Torah seems to have been just an invention, but an inspired one at that: a god who spoke up for the oppressed, a god who would never abandon you (provided you never lose faith), and a religion with promise of blessings for all the world. This is what the author has convincingly given us, and the effect of widespread discovery of this information will make us all more authentically religious but released from the boxes of belief that is Judaism and Christianity. We can at last join the rest of the world in its awe-filled and necessarily mysterious life, living in the only kind of spirituality that is possible now: an open-minded, open-hearted acceptance of the way things are, ready with Job to cover our mouths with our hands, ready with Jesus to hope for an eternal life somehow or other.

Rating:
Summary: astonishing conclusions with wide impact to come
Review: Sperling's new book is certain to have a powerful impact both on Jewish and Christian society, a good impact, but a deeply radical one. No Moses? No Egyptian enslavement? No Abraham? No Exodus? It's all allegory? Once the theory is explained, it becomes painfully evident: the beautiful purposes of the writers of the Torah were to form the hearts and minds of the Jewish people into a community that believed in itself, believed in its God, and took on a mission to become "a light to the Gentiles" as well as a spiritually empowered nation. The Torah seems to have been just an invention, but an inspired one at that: a god who spoke up for the oppressed, a god who would never abandon you (provided you never lose faith), and a religion with promise of blessings for all the world. This is what the author has convincingly given us, and the effect of widespread discovery of this information will make us all more authentically religious but released from the boxes of belief that is Judaism and Christianity. We can at last join the rest of the world in its awe-filled and necessarily mysterious life, living in the only kind of spirituality that is possible now: an open-minded, open-hearted acceptance of the way things are, ready with Job to cover our mouths with our hands, ready with Jesus to hope for an eternal life somehow or other.