Treating the Bible as a literary text is a standard approach in certain areas of scholarship. Jack Miles' innovation is to treat God as the main protagonist of this literary work, and to analyze his "character" as revealed in the text. Miles, a former Jesuit who studied in Rome and Jerusalem, and has a doctorate in Near Eastern languages, analyzed the Hebrew Bible (for the most part like the Old Testament, but ordered differently) to arrive at his literary exegesis. This God, it is clear, is certainly a complex character. Undoubtedly male, but possessed of seemingly multiple personalities, He is alternately creator/destroyer, protector/executioner, and warrior/lawgiver. Miles' "reading" of God, whose proactive role at the beginning develops into a passive silent presence, is entertaining, thoughtful and a worthy winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize.


From Publishers Weekly
In a masterful, audacious inquiry, Miles attempts to tease out God's nature, character, motives and designs through a close textual analysis of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. He deduces that the God of Judeo-Christian tradition is an amalgam of several ancient, divine personalities. Worshiped as the source of mercy, wisdom, strength and love, God is also at times an abrupt, unpredictable, wrathful being: a destroyer as well as a creator. There is also Abraham's personal god, almost a "busy friend of the family"; God the lawgiver, who attaches supreme importance to justice; God as arbiter, conqueror and father; and the silent, omniscient God of the Book of Daniel, who knows in detail the entire remaining course of history. The Creator, in Miles's reading, is intimately linked to human destiny, because humanity, made in His image, is an indispensable tool in His quest for self-understanding. Miles, a former Jesuit and currently a Los Angeles Times columnist, has written a profound exploration of Western monotheism and the wellsprings of faith. 35,000 first printing; BOMC alternate; QPB selection; author tour. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Despite its provocative title, this is a serious attempt to come to an understanding of the portrayal of God in the Tanakh, i.e., the books of the Hebrew Scriptures in the order of the Hebrew Bible, as opposed to the order in the Old Testament. Miles, a former Jesuit with a Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages who is currently a member of the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, offers "knowledge of God as a literary character." While some may not care for how God is portrayed?at one point he is "whiny"?the book will appeal to believers and nonbelievers alike as an excellent introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures that does not read like a Scripture commentary. Recommended for all collections.?Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, N.J.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times
A scintillating work of literary scholarship that will forever color, if not downright alter, our conception of the Bible as a work of art...Dazzling.


New York Times Book Review, Phyllis Trible
A tour de force. . . . The twists and turns of this formidable reading offer more than enough to stir up people who are at ease in Zion, and those who are not . . . Mr. Miles has accomplished what others failed to try. He has made a certain literary sense of the character God.


From Booklist
Literary studies generally bomb in public libraries. Who wouldn't rather read, say, War and Peace, than a book about it? But here is a literary study novel enough to woo ordinary (i.e., noncollege-student) readers, provocative enough in its approach to hold their attention throughout, and well enough written (academic literary studies are usually literarily execrable) to make reading it enjoyable. The text Miles examines is the Old Testament, although for his critical purpose, he reads its books in the order of their appearance in the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible--that is, with the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) preceding the books of later history and wisdom (I Chronicles through the Song of Solomon), which in turn are reversed (wisdom before history). Miles follows this order because it is more conducive to his explication of the Tanakh as the story of God's development as a literary character. In this view, God starts out as a creative being with neither a past nor any prospective future; nor does he have any companion before he makes man in his image. He seems, Miles argues, to discover his attributes as the Bible progresses, and for a very long time--until Isaiah speaks of him, to be precise--the quality now most popular with his people, love, is not among them. Moreover, in the account of him given by the order of books in the Tanakh, he proceeds from involvement with to retirement from human actions and from speech to silence. Very starchy believers will doubtless castigate what they see as the blasphemous presumption of treating God as a literary character, but less flammable believers as well as nonbelievers will be afforded greater understanding of how Western civilization formulated the peculiarly personal religious consciousness that informs Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike. Ray Olson

ANNOTATION

In this close, careful, and inspired reading of God's "life" as told in the Old Testament--book by book, verse by verse--God is seen from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days, variously powerful yet powerless, savage yet gentle, endlessly subtle yet mysteriously naive.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Miles shows us God in the guise of a great literary character, the hero of the Old Testament. In a close, careful, and inspired reading of that testament - book by book, verse by verse - God is seen from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days. The God whom Miles reveals to us is a warrior whose greatest battle is with himself. We see God torn by conflicting urges. To his own sorrow, he is by turns destructive and creative, vain and modest, subtle and naive, ruthless and tender, lawful and lawless, powerful yet powerless, omniscient and blind. As we watch him change amazingly, we are drawn into the epic drama of his search for self-knowledge, the search that prompted him to create mankind as his mirror. In that mirror he seeks to examine his own reflection, but he also finds there a rival. We then witness God's own perilous passage from power to wisdom. For generations our culture's approach to the Bible has been more a reverential act than a pursuit of knowledge about the Bible's protagonist; and so, through the centuries the complexity of God's being and "life" has been diluted in our consciousness. In this book we find - in precisely chiseled relief - the infinitely complex God who made infinitely complex man in his image. Here, we come closer to the essence of that literary masterpiece that has shaped our culture no less than our religious life. In God: A Biography, Jack Miles addresses his great subject with imagination, insight, learning, daring, and dazzling originality, giving us at the same time an illumination of the Old Testament as a work of consummate art and a journey to the secret heart of God.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

In a masterful, audacious inquiry, Miles attempts to tease out God's nature, character, motives and designs through a close textual analysis of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. He deduces that the God of Judeo-Christian tradition is an amalgam of several ancient, divine personalities. Worshiped as the source of mercy, wisdom, strength and love, God is also at times an abrupt, unpredictable, wrathful being: a destroyer as well as a creator. There is also Abraham's personal god, almost a "busy friend of the family"; God the lawgiver, who attaches supreme importance to justice; God as arbiter, conqueror and father; and the silent, omniscient God of the Book of Daniel, who knows in detail the entire remaining course of history. The Creator, in Miles's reading, is intimately linked to human destiny, because humanity, made in His image, is an indispensable tool in His quest for self-understanding. Miles, a former Jesuit and currently a Los Angeles Times columnist, has written a profound exploration of Western monotheism and the wellsprings of faith.

Publishers Weekly

Former Jesuit Miles offers a detailed analysis of the nature and character of God as he appears in the Old Testament. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Despite its provocative title, this is a serious attempt to come to an understanding of the portrayal of God in the Tanakh, i.e., the books of the Hebrew Scriptures in the order of the Hebrew Bible, as opposed to the order in the Old Testament. Miles, a former Jesuit with a Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages who is currently a member of the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, offers "knowledge of God as a literary character." While some may not care for how God is portrayed-at one point he is "whiny"-the book will appeal to believers and nonbelievers alike as an excellent introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures that does not read like a Scripture commentary. Recommended for all collections.-Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, N.J.

BookList - Ray Olson