The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism

by Neil Gillman

Book Overview

An accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of God throughout history--and today. The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism is an accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of God... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580230253
• ISBN13: 9781580230254
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
• Length: 205 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Well written and comprehensive

This clear and well written book covers Judaism largely from a Conservative or Reform Jewish point of view. The author, a theology professor, is much more rigorous than, say, Harold Kushner, but he has a very distinct point of view. For example, the book contains a chapter on how "God Isn't Nice" and how God makes mistakes. If you know from the beginning that this viewpoint is anathema to you, then avoid the book. If either you accept the viewpoint or you reject it but find it nonetheless interesting, then you will find this book challenging and rewarding.

Good analyses of both traditional and nontraditionl views

I have had the privilege of hearing Rabbi Gillman lecture. For years, he has been a distinguished faculty member at the Jewish Theological Seminary and his less traditional image of God is well known to those who have read his writings or heard his lectures. In this book, one of the views of God that he discusses is that of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. This image is that God is the Power which leads us to do good and the Power that leads us to salvation. God is more a process than a being. I once asked Rabbi Gillman if, under this view, there would be a God if there were no human beings. His insightful answer was that humankind did not invent God but discovered God. Therefore, God is not a presence who reveals Himself (Gillman, by the way, avoids using masculine pronouns to refer to God) but nonetheless exists independently of humanity. Our views of God in human terms as having emotions, being a personal God, etc. are metaphors to understanding God, who is otherwise incomprehensible. In this book, Gillman discusses this image of "discovering" God. Gillman surveys the more traditional images of God. He sees the development of these images as delveloping from a God who instantly seeks to punish sins, such as the punishment of Adam and Eve, and the punishment of Cain after killing Able, to a God who may delay or postpone punishment, to the image of God who, through repentence, cancels punishment completely, such as when the people of Nineveh repented in the book of Jonah. Obviously, very orthodox Jews will have a different image of God than will, e.g., a reconstructionsit Jew so, it is not possible to define what the current image of God is. However, Bishop John Shelby Sprong, in his book "Sins of Scripture, best summarizes the non traditional view that Gillman sets forth: "theism is not God, it is nothing but a human definition if God --- and a radically inadequate one at that. When theism dies God does not die, but a human definition of God does." This liberal Christian view of Bishop Sprong is a good description of a nontraditional Jewish image. Rabbi Gillman has done a great service in, relatively few pages, making both traditional and less tradtional images of God understandable.