Interesting idea that could have been explored further | The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery |...

The withdrawal of God? | The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery | Richard Elliott Friedman

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	• The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery Richard Elliott Friedman Little, Brown and Company, 1995 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Outstanding Work

I just finished this book and intend to read it again right away. I found it to be a very powerful work and am disappointed that it does not seem to have a stronger following; this is a real gem that has apparently been lost in the shuffle. Written for both believers and non-believers, Friedman proposes a very interesting framework for understanding man's relationship with God and our place in the universe. It's not a comprehensive theology by any means nor is it an attempt to convert atheists. By the end of the book, however, I found my faith strengthened ("renewed" is actually a better word) in a God that bridges the apparent gaps between modern science, the Bible, and the oft-misunderstood philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche (who gets soem very enlightening attention in this book, along with Dostoyevsky). Fundamentalists, on the other hand, may be disappointed (even though I think they shouldn't be). Highly recommended.

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Interesting idea that could have been explored further

I was intrigued by author's idea to explore the disappearance of God in the Old Testament. He notes that at the beginning of creation God walked with man in the Garden of Eden, but as man developed, God spoke and interacted less and less directly with man. The author notes that God's face became 'hidden' - e.g., He appeared as a burning bush or in a column of 'glory' and could no longer be looked upon directly. Eventually he began to speak to man or demonstrate His power only in very private appearances or miracles, whereas He had previously done things that a whole people could witness. And the first part of the book takes this idea even farther.

I liked the first part of the book the best. The author tries to link the disappearance of God to the writings of Nietschze and to the Qabalah (parts two and three of the book), but IMHO fails to do anything other than suggest a connection. The book was informative, as far as it went. I would've liked to see the author search ancient religions/beliefs systems/mystical writings for a reason WHY God disappeared, rather than merely speculating on it himself.

Overall, I think it's an interesting read, especially if you like books like The Da Vinci Code.

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The withdrawal of God?

This profound work explores 3 mysteries concerning the presence or absence of God in the Old Testament. Part One deals with the gradual disappearance of the visible presence of God throughout the narrative, part two considers Nietzsche and Dostoevsky's experience of this phenomenon and part three examines correspondences between religion and science in view of the rediscovery of God.

The author traces the diminishing presence of the deity through the course of the Hebrew Bible, showing how the nature of communication changes from visible to indirect manifestation whilst signs of the divine, like miracles, become rarer, finally ceasing altogether. A related development is a shift in the balance of control in human destiny - a transition from divine to human responsibility. This is observed from Adam & Eve, through Noah, Abraham and Moses down to the Book of Esther where the name of God is not even mentioned openly.

It is remarkable that the phenomenon appears with chronological consistency in a narrative composed by many authors over many centuries. friedman attempts to find the reason, pointing out that it is not only the result of human transgression but seems also to be the granting of a measure of independence to humanity. The last chapter of the first part deals with the legacy of the age. Both Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity developed with the awareness of divine absence. In Judaism, the response was the doctrine of the two Torahs with the development of the Oral Torah.

In the context of the shift in the divine-human balance, the appearance of Christ is striking as God now appears in human form. Jesus most often refers to himself as "son of man" whatever the finer nuances of the meaning are. And again there are showers of miracles, but of the type associated with Elijah and Elisha, not of the Exodus type. Friedman speculates about three possible meanings for these words on the Cross: "My God, why have you left me?" which becomes highly significant in view of the phenomenon of hiddenness in the Old Testament.

In addition, out of reverence the Divine Name was not pronounced and was in a sense "lost" for 2000 years until its rediscovery in modern times. Over the last 2 millennia, God has been publicly known only through churches and synagogues and books. Of course individuals have always had their own experiences but the issue here is the public absence of the deity.

Part two covers Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, their work in which they predicted a world without moral compass and the theme of madness. Chapter 9 deals with the "death" of God in the 20th century, a time of blood and darkness in which the feeling of the absence of the divine was very profound. At the same time it was and still is an era of magnificent scientific progress, which is tied in with the third part of the book which explores the science of cosmology as it approaches the realm of religion. Friedman provides an overview of the history of Big Bang theory and presents a careful and intriguing comparison with the creation model of the Kabbala, with particular reference to the Zohar.

He discusses the concept of God inhering in the universe according to some cosmological theories, which mirrors the ideas of the Zohar. This is not simple pantheism, and I was surprised that Friedman never uses the word panentheism as that is what he describes. He mentions the central role of consciousness with reference to Roger Penrose and talks about the Kabbalistic idea of restoration called Tikkun.

The final chapter addresses divine-human reunion by looking at the connections between the 3 mysteries and how they illuminate one another. Here the writing becomes a bit repetitive as the author revisits previous chapters. All of the 3 are outer reflections of the search for relationship, all 3 are about communities and all 3 trace the path of Western civilization, revealing where we began and where we stand now. Friedman believes humanity is at a crossroads, on the verge of "coming of age." There are 25pp of notes arranged by chapter, a bibliography of works cited, acknowledgments and an index.

Unfortunately there is a huge omission in Friedman's reasoning - the mammoth in the midst of the earth. It cannot be ignorance so it must have been deliberate. Almost exactly in the middle of the cruelest century in human existence, a great miracle occurred. That was the 1948 rebirth of Israel as a sovereign nation as predicted in the Bible. And the great aliyah continues. Moreover, these are PUBLIC miracles, witnessed by the whole earth. Friedman missed the obvious - so just 4 stars for this book.

I recommend the following books of related interest:

Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning by Thomas Troward

Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover

The Dawn: Political Teachings of the Book of Esther by Yoram Hazony

Zohar: Annotated & Explained by Daniel Matt

The Hidden Book in the Bible by Richard Friedman

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A good book, but a weak ending

This is an ambitious and insightful book. I had never thought that the Bible had a plot, and I learned from this book that it has one: the coupled and progressive weakening of god and strengthening of man. I don't know much about Nitzsche and Dovstoyevsky but I learned a lot about these incredible philosophers from the third part of the book. The last part of the book was weak. The tie of god and scientific cosmology never panned out, and the real question of the book " How do you inculcate a moral code in the absence of faith in a divinity?" is framed, discussed, but never really answered. Still, a remarkable and thought-provoking book.

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The author of the best-selling Who Wrote the Bible? investigates the way God's visible presence gradually diminishes in the Bible, the famous declaration by Friedrich Nietzsche that ""God is dead,"" and similar mysteries.

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