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Summary: A unique reading of the God of the Old Testament
Review: Miles takes the Hebrew Scriptures (The Tanakh) and uses it to look at God as a literary character, defining his personality and motivations from this point of view. The result is fascinating, and gives readers a fresh perspective on the God of the Old Testament. Here, we see a God who is ever-changing, not always quite sure of himself, reactive at times rather than proactive, and by the end of the literary narrative is silent. In some ways, God is brought down to human terms, but in other ways, God becomes more complex. He is knowable, yet unknowable, the unmysterious mystery.
It is helpful for readers to have an understanding of the Tanakh, as the order of the books are different from that of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. It is also helpful to realize that this is a LITERARY look at the Hebrew Bible, and the stories are not necessarily told in chronological order. Ruth, for example, comes much later than the story of David. Still, I found it helpful for my faith to see God as a literary character, and I thank Miles for doing an outstanding job at providing an interesting and fresh critique.
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Summary: New Look at the Old Testament
Review: Miles' thoughtful, searching, and sometimes thrilling re-examination of the Old Testament (or more properly, Hebrew Bible or Tanakh) turns on the intriguing premise that we can read the Bible as a novel in which God serves as protagonist. Miles never overplays this notion, keeping one eye on historical interpretations, but uses it to develop a fascinating reading of the familiar text. As with Harold Bloom's Book of J, this book can fascinate merely by challenging conventional english translations: the profusion of puns, irony, and sarcasm in the original Hebrew comes as a shock and a thrill to readers who first learned these stories as children. Miles would be worth reading for this analysis alone. And when he applies his methods to the Book of Job, the result is a radical reinterpretation that finally makes sense of the problematic tale, giving it a moral weight traditonal readings have denied. Miles' conclusions go deeper, demonstrating how in forcing the function of a half dozen pagan deities into a single God, monotheism created a figure contradictory, paradoxical, powerfully creative and self-destructive: like nothing seen before - and in doing so, forged the first literary character of true psychological complexity. In the Tanakh God creates mankind in his own image so that he may have a way to better see himself -- Miles' interpretation shows us man creating the Tanakh, and God, to do precisely the same thing.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking.
Review: My definition of a good book is one that includes information, mental stimulation and reason to re-think old positions. As a Catholic, I have had little occasion to study the bible, particularly the Old Testament and therefore had little interest or need of it. But this book has provided me with the impetus to look at an old subject in a new way. Miles gives us God as a historical personality evolving in his relationship with his creation and shaping the destiny of mankind with his insights into his personal development. From physical creator, to lawgiver, to parental figure, to confidant, to the silent omnipotent of the universe. A compelling look at the story of God.
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Summary: A fecund harvest of insights
Review: One need not accept all, or indeed any, of Jack Miles' conclusion to derive enormous benefit from just thinking about the issues he raises. In this scholarly yet approachable book, Miles surveys the development of God's nature and character as it unfolds in the Hebrew Bible. Each of the many distinct personalities that one finds in the Bible's protagonist is held up and examined, using the metaphor of literary character development to fuel the narrative. Of particular interest to me is the interpretation of the story of Job. In Miles' view, the opening verses portray Satan as tempting God, while the closing confrontation between Job and God serves to demonstrate that might, even the might of God, does not make right. In the end, it is Job's integrity and courage that enable God to overcome the temptation. This is just an example of the kind of thought-provoking insights that are strewn throughout this book to richly reward anyone who approaches the thesis with an open mind.
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Summary: Who is God?
Review: Scholarly written from an unique perspective yet not convincing. Heavy sledding with little satisfaction.
Rating:
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:
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:
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:
Summary: An interesting idea, poorly executed.
Review: The author's stated purpose with this book is to write a literary biography of the character 'God' in the Jewish Tanakh (Christian Old Testament). As I said, an interesting idea. It removes the strain of belief or acceptance from a study of the character of God. Rather than getting hung up on issues like, "I can't believe a <insert trait here> God would <insert action here>!", Jack Miles proposes that we look at how this piece of literature presents its main character, God. Unfortunately, the author hangs his interpretation of the character, God, on a some very weak assumptions. For instance, because we are not told of God's story prior to his creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis, Mr. Miles assumes that God has no history. In his mind, God begins as this powerful creative sentient force with no real knowledge of itself. The story of the Tanakh is read as God forging a series of relationships with people (as individuals and in groups), the failure of which seem to reveal to God some aspect of himself that he had not known before. However, the author seems to entirely miss the possibility that what we see is not God's discovery of himself through his relationships with men, but rather a mosaic (no pun intended) picture of God presented through the perspectives and experiences of a variety of authors. Honestly, the gross assumptions which constitute the spine of this book have really undermined my respect for the Pulitzer Prize. If I had handed something like this in in school, it would have been given a 'C' at best and there would have been numberous comments of "show support for this statement" and "show evidence for this explaination of motive".
Rating:
Summary: An interesting idea, poorly executed.
Review: The author's stated purpose with this book is to write a literary biography of the character 'God' in the Jewish Tanakh (Christian Old Testament). As I said, an interesting idea. It removes the strain of belief or acceptance from a study of the character of God. Rather than getting hung up on issues like, "I can't believe a God would !", Jack Miles proposes that we look at how this piece of literature presents its main character, God.Unfortunately, the author hangs his interpretation of the character, God, on a some very weak assumptions. For instance, because we are not told of God's story prior to his creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis, Mr. Miles assumes that God has no history. In his mind, God begins as this powerful creative sentient force with no real knowledge of itself. The story of the Tanakh is read as God forging a series of relationships with people (as individuals and in groups), the failure of which seem to reveal to God some aspect of himself that he had not known before. However, the author seems to entirely miss the possibility that what we see is not God's discovery of himself through his relationships with men, but rather a mosaic (no pun intended) picture of God presented through the perspectives and experiences of a variety of authors. Honestly, the gross assumptions which constitute the spine of this book have really undermined my respect for the Pulitzer Prize. If I had handed something like this in in school, it would have been given a 'C' at best and there would have been numberous comments of "show support for this statement" and "show evidence for this explaination of motive".
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