Who on Earth Is God?: Making Sense of God in the Bible

ISBN-13: 9780567472434 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 264 str.

Neil Richardson

Opis

How should we understand the God of the Bible? How do we make sense of God's apparently changing character in the Bible theologically? God is not obvious - unlike all the animate and inanimate objects which we can see around us. God does not appear to fulfill any useful purpose; what is God for or about? Is God just a mystery? Or a problem? Or both? In Who On Earth is God?: Making Sense of God in the Bible Neil Richardson provides the answers to these fascinating questions. Richardson tackles the hard issues surrounding some of the more problematic passages head on, looking at divine anger, violence and jealousy, and suggesting how these can be interpreted. The book engages with the difficult questions posed by contemporary issues, and the 'new atheism' pioneered by popular writers such as Richard Dawkins. This takes discussion 'beyond the bible' into later developments in thought, and notions of God in a post-modern context. This is an indispensable guide for people with or without faith, wrestling with these difficult, and eternal, questions and themes.

Recenzje

Here is a book for new Christians and non-Christians. But also for Christians like me - long in the tooth and with years of reading and teaching the Bible under their belt. It is clear, brave, and honest. It will stir people to discussion and debate. It will surely accomplish what its author describes as his aim: "to offer a foundation for a far-reaching Jewish and Christian humanism." It should be stuffed into brief cases, lunch boxes and pockets and read on buses, offices and in the pew. Leslie Griffiths, Methodist Minister and Member of the House of Lords, UK

Spis treści

Foreword Introduction: Why This Book? i) That strange word ‘God’ ii) ‘There is no God’? iii) God and gods iv) The God of the Bible Conclusion Seven Steps Towards Reading the Bible Chapter One: Beginnings: God of Creation i) God of Beginnings ii) Human Beings and God iii) The Question of God’s Patience iv) Beginning Again: Abraham, Friend of God Summary Chapter Two: Moses, Joshua and the Violence of God i) God the Terrorist? ii) ‘Divine’ Massacres, Ancient and Modern iii) Divine Cruelty to Dumb Animals? iv) A Choosy ‘Jealous’ God Summary Interlude (1): Is the Bible No Longer Trustworthy? Chapter Three: Through the Darkest Night i) Why did God Allow This to Happen? ii) Towards Belief in One God iii) The ‘Judgements’ of God in History iv) Wrath: God’s Dark Side or Ours? Summary Chapter Four God: A ‘You’ Rather Than an ‘It’ i) An Awesomely Consistent ‘You’ ii) An Always and Everywhere ‘You’ iii) An Elusive (and Cruel?) You iv) ‘My God’, ‘Our God Summary Interlude 2 Is the God of the Old Testament Different from the God of the New? Chapter Five: Jesus and the God of the Bible: i) Jesus and the Question of God ii) The Strange Things Jesus Said about God iii) Not a God for Religious People iv) The Meaning of the Virgin Birth Summary Chapter Six: Paul: the God Who Crossed Boundaries i) God on the Damascus Road ii) Jesus in Our Place and in God’s Place iii) Some Contemporary Problems with Paul’s God iv) ‘To the Church of God in Corinth’ Summary Chapter Seven: ‘John’s’ Witness to God i) ‘John’ and God ii) Still a Violent God? The Book of Revelation iii) God in the End iv) The Bible’s Climax: the First Letter of John Summary Summary of Summaries Conclusion: Who on Earth is God? A Personal Postscript

O autorze

Dr Neil G. Richardson was Tutor in New Testament Studies and later Principal of Wesley College, Bristol. He served as President of the British Methodist Conference in 2003-2004.