God: A Biography

by Jack Miles

Book Overview

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE What sort of person is God? What is his life story? Is it possible to approach him not as an object of religious reverence, but as the protagonist of the world's greatest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679418334
• ISBN13: 9780679418337
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 446 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A postmodern, postcritical reintegration of the story of God

When I first heard about this book, I was put off by what I considered a "cutesy" title. Mentally, I catalogued the book with efforts along the lines of "Conversations with God" or even "The Celestine Prophecy," pop-theology that sought to gain a mass readership through some kind of clever gimmick.Several weeks ago, though, I took a closer look and was intrigued by Miles' premise. He calls this book a biography because he's focusing on the "person" of God as described throughout the Hebrew scriptures, or Tanakh. Miles puts a lot of emphasis on the sequence of books found in the Tanakh as contrasted with the Old Testament. To him, the order in which scriptures are read makes a lot of difference to how the reader comes to learn about and understand God. Miles sees not just evidence of the period in which these works were composed (earlier to later) but also deliberate artfulness in their arrangement, so that we observe a gradual waning of God's direct involvement in the world. From the early accounts of God walking through the garden in the cool of the evening, we read story after story of God having intimate, personal dialogue with the great figures of Israelite history, only to see such reports diminish over the course of the centuries, until the final vision of a high, distant and receding figure called the Ancient of Days at the end of Daniel. By the time we get to the Chronicles-Nehemiah cycle, God is more an object of reference, the one being talked about, rather than a direct participant in the story. Or so goes the basic argument of Miles, anyway.Though Miles cannot be relied upon to support any specific denominational or doctrinal claims that might come from a reading of scripture, I don't see him as having an agenda of undermining religious authority or personal beliefs. In his discussion of Job, toward the end of the book, he gives a helpful description of his own objectives in writing the book:"The reading offered here attempts a consciously postcritical or postmodern reintegration of mythic, fictional and historical elements in the Bible so as to allow the character of God to stand forth more clearly from the work of which he is the protagonist."I appreciate his clarity and honesty in making that statement. He recognizes that the Bible functions differently for many of its readers, across the span of religious traditions that trace their roots to these scriptures. He's not trying to supplant those readings, but is instead offering a supplemental perspective, which I believe is useful and relevant for our times.The early books of the Bible get the most in-depth treatment, because they are the basis from which the rest of Tanakh develops. Genesis portrays God in his most basic roles: Creator, Destroyer (via the Flood,) and "Friend of the Family" (the personal god of Abraham and his biological descendents.) An interesting chapter titled "Creator/Destroyer" reflects on how those conflicting tendencies play themselves out in the story of A

Unquestionably worth the effort

Jack Miles achieved his stated intent to write a biography of the character God based on the Tanakh, a literary work. The result is a fascinating study of the evolution of the Judean notion of a monotheistic God, the linchpin for the Jewish, Christian and Muslin religions. Some reviews here either entirely shun Miles work or nit-pick at one of his arguments with certain shrillness, as if Miles had stepped on sacred toes. Unless you can accept, at least temporarily, that man created God and not the other way around, you are liable to suffer a similar upset.Miles is a scholar. He has devoted his life to the study of religion, literature and language, and his writing is rich with insightful analogies. This is not an easy read, however. I had to look up more words while reading this work than with any other book in memory, and some required delving into the cognate, but it was unquestionably worth the effort.

Chronicles of a desert deity

Jack Miles has responded to a number of theses concerning the character of his deity. Many biblical critics have suggested the early books present several gods lumped together by editorial fiat. Miles insists that the god of the Hebrew Bible is but one. That circumstance, uniqueness and solitude, is the cause of various character changes this god went through in the course of history. He has neither siblings nor peers. It's a very human story, but Miles doesn't portray this god as a human personification with superior powers. On the contrary, this god is unaware of the powers he possesses until he tries them out. They become, predictably, addictive with the passage of time. As the god develops, he exhibits changes in character that would be considered "growing up" in people. Finally, for unknown reasons, but perhaps just fatigue, the god retires from human contact. People are left only with previous lessons to follow.Although "God" is the result of intensive knowledge of the Hebrew Tanakh, Miles dismisses the notion that his study is a psychoanalysis of the god, but that's because he's dealing with a divinity. The character variations Miles chronicles, the creator, destroyer, family patriarch, liberator and others, could be applied to any complex character. Any good biography of a national leader might evince the same personifications. The depiction might manifest as many, if not the same, characteristics. Miles' demurral may be overlooked, since his presentation is a compelling account delivered with lively writing skill. He is able to achieve a cool detachment, but not clinical aloofness, in presenting a deity to which he retains some level of adherence.Miles' personal faith doesn't restrict what minimal judgments he offers on this god. He accepts that the god reneges on promises, is a genocidal killer of some note, and punishes even those he claims to love with spontaneous wrath. In early days, he doesn't seek worshippers, just obedient subjects. We learn his sacrifices must be living creatures instead of agricultural crops, but the issue rises with Cain and repeats frequently. It's an arbitrary decision, enforced with vigour, but the motivation remains hidden. It all seems to boil down to whimsical expressions of power. The power is challenged, however, in the outstanding chapters in this book, the account of Job. Job's story has been retold countless times in various arenas, but Miles has analysed the account with fresh, engrossing insight. In his view, Job wins the encounter by simply accepting the god enjoys greater power than he, responding "So what?". It's a given. Job's not contesting the point, so why the terrible punishments? Miles' god is here shown as lawgiver, but not an administrator of justice. Miles, too, accepts the condition - the god has simply grown old and too irascible to reason with. The shade of Samuel Langhorne Clemens hovered nearby during the reading of this book and writing this review. S

New Look at the Old Testament

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.

A fecund harvest of insights

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.