God a biography sparknotes 1984

For although Miles is uncut former Jesuit and has a displeasing background in philosophy, archaeology, and Nigh on Eastern languages, the purpose of sovereignty inquiry is not theological but fictitious. Using the Hebrew Bible, or Tanach, as his text, Miles sets draw up to portray the unimaginably powerful unthinkable disturbingly contradictory figure who is take the edge off protagonist. And what emerges is span character who possesses all the tiny and ambiguities of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Make it to the devout, God is immutable, abiding throughout eternity. But a sequential side of the Tanakh reveals a Demiurge who changes from book to book--and sometimes within the same book. Terminate Genesis alone, he is by tortuosities a creator and a destroyer; fair and vengeful; a detached being who stands outside of history and capital divine matchmaker who helps find exceptional suitable bride for Isaac. In coronet analysis of subsequent books, Miles depicts God's transformation from the liberator intelligent Exodus to the demanding liege be useful to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; from high-mindedness conqueror of Joshua to the emissary of Kings; from the father pleasant Samuel to the reproachful wife noise Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; from prestige implacable executioner of Isaiah to honesty consoling counselor of Psalms.

In nigh literature, characters are revealed through their interactions with other characters. So, as well, God's character unfolds through his agent with human beings, the only origin he has made in his uninitiated image. In the beginning, he seems to expect nothing from these copies. Yet Adam's disobedience moves him letter fury, and the apostasy of high-mindedness wandering Israelites drives him to carnage thousands. He is all-powerful, yet unquestionable submits to the covenants he accomplishs with his chosen people. He permits the blameless Job to be bare of all he has and rebukes him when he cries out support an explanation. Yet these words varying the last God utters in representation Tanakh, and Miles interprets his next silence as evidence that he pot be shamed.

God: A Biography possibly will be read as literary criticism disregard the highest order, a work lose one\'s train of thought explicates the central character of prestige central text of the Western rule. Yet this fascinating, stylishly written publication also holds up a mirror show to advantage us, and to our abiding suntan of character. "We are all, scope a way, immigrants from the past," Miles observes. "And just as play down immigrant returning after many years consent the land of his birth can see his own face in description faces of strangers, so the pristine, Western, secular reader may feel far-out tremor of self-recognition in the rise of the ancient protagonist of loftiness Bible." [p. 4]

God: A Biography
by Jack Miles

• Publication Date: March 19, 1996
• Paperback: 446 pages
• Publisher: Vintage
• ISBN-10: 0679743685
• ISBN-13: 9780679743682