Book Recommendation: God, A Biography by Jack Miles
A look at God as a literary character
"God: A Biography" by Jack Miles is one of the earlier books I read in my deconstruction.
It's a fantastic breakdown of "God" as a literary character, showing how God changes from the beginning to the end of the Bible. Miles looks at how God went from a supreme creator deity in a broader pantheon, to a personal family protector of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then to a national patron deity.
But it also looks at how his personality changes. How he goes from being impersonal to violent to loving.
If you’ve ever wondered why God in the Old Testament often seems like he has contradictory personalities, it’s because he does. Originally, God was actually two different and distinct deities.
El, the supreme sky god, was a benevolent and merciful father figure. When you think of “old man in the sky” that’s El.
Yahweh, however, was a vindictive storm deity, of the “smite me, almighty smiter” variety. He was temperamental, jealous, and often violent.
Miles discusses how the personalities and epithets of both El and Yahweh were merged into a single deity, and how that merger is reflected in original Hebrew language.
It's not light reading.
It's very in depth and very thorough, but well worth it if you want to know more about how God--as a god--came about.
Happy reading!
